“I will never leave Thee nor forsake Thee” (Heb. xiii. 5).
It is most cheering thus to know that although we err and bring upon
ourselves many troubles that might have been easily averted, yet God does
not forsake even His mistaken child, but on his humble repentance and
supplication is ever really both to pardon and deliver. Let us not give up
our faith because we have perhaps stepped out of the path in which He
would have led us. The Israelites did not follow when He called them into
the Land of Promise, yet God did not desert them; but during the forty
years of their wandering He walked by their side bearing their backsliding
with patient compassion, and waiting to be gracious unto them when another
generation should have come. “In all their afflictions He was afflicted,
but the Angel of His presence saved them; He bare them and carried them
all the days of old.” And so yet, while our wanderings bring us many
sorrows and lose us many blessings, to the heart which truly chooses His,
He has graciously said: “I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.”