Forsake Me Not

Do not leave me nor forsake me,
O God of my salvation.
When my father and my mother forsake me,
Then the LORD will take care of me.
Psalm 27:9b-10

Imagine a college basketball team that had won every game for four years in a row. As they gathered in the locker room for their final game together to play for the championship one last time, the coach gave them some words of encouragement and then said, to their shock and dismay, that he was leaving. He wouldn’t be there for the last game. The team captain, Pete, protested, but the coach insisted it had to be that way, and then he got up and left.

This must be the way the apostles felt at the Last Supper when Jesus said that he was going to leave them, after three years of preparation, right when it seemed they were on the cusp of doing something big! Peter had some bold things to say, but in the end everything happened just as Jesus said it would.

With the benefit of hindsight, we know that it was absolutely essential for Jesus to go to the cross and to the grave, and then back to heaven about forty days after he was resurrected.

But the apostles didn’t understand. They were afraid. Perhaps they felt abandoned. What they did in response was abandon Jesus. Judas had already betrayed him. When they came to arrest Jesus, Peter made a valiant attempt to uphold his promises to protect him , but when Jesus rebuked Peter, telling him to put away his sword, Matthew 26:56 tells us, “then all the disciples forsook Him and fled.” And though Peter and John followed and watched from a distance, when people asked, Peter denied even knowing Jesus.

One of our elders recently asked us, before partaking of communion, to think of someone we are really close to, someone we trust and rely on, like a spouse, a parent, or a child. Then he asked us to imagine the pain we would feel if that person turned on us. As he spoke, I thought of my daughters and then I thought of my sister. If any one of them were to turn against me, make herself my enemy, that would be crushing emotional pain. I could feel it in my chest as I sat there and imagined it. That was just a hint of the pain Jesus must have felt when all twelve of the men he had spent three years training and showing how to serve and how to love, turned and fled in fear, leaving him alone during his greatest trial.

It’s understandable that the apostles were afraid when they saw Jesus arrested and taken away in handcuffs, so to speak. And then, bit by bit, their hopes crumbled as Jesus was put on trial in the middle of the night and crucified as morning dawned.

But the truth was that Jesus had not forsaken them. Neither his physical life nor his physical presence was the necessary proof of his love for them. In fact it was the opposite. His great love is why he had to die. And his later ascension is what allowed the Helper to come (John 16:7).

Even as Jesus was leaving in that cloud, he said, “and lo, I am with you always,” (Matthew 28:20). He didn’t have to stay here physically in order to coach his team to victory.

Neither do we have to see him to know that he is working for our good.

Sometimes it may feel like he’s forsaken me, but that’s a lie of Satan, and that’s when I must guard against forsaking him, as I have at times: running away in fear or holding back because I’m afraid of what people might do or say to me if I stand with Jesus.

I don’t know about you, but in my Christian life, I depend very much on the Lord’s promise never to forsake me. To keep from forsaking him in difficult times, perhaps we should picture him as if he were right there beside us, because he is.

He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” So we may boldly say: “The LORD is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?” Hebrews 13:5b-6

Dear God, sometimes my faith in You is weak and it’s hard to believe in things I can’t see. But You have proved Your love over and over. Forgive me for the times I have doubted and walked my own path. Please increase my faith, Lord, and bind me to You so that I never leave You. In Jesus’s name, Amen.

by Christie Cole Atkins

Much thanks to Dan Randall of Burrton, Kansas, for the basketball team illustration.

Related Reading:

Don’t Fall For Satan’s Lies