Submitted by Pastor David Shadinger, Rock Port & Watson United Methodist Churches

Have you ever felt forgotten by God? The writer of Psalm 13 clearly did. The psalmist cries out, “How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?” It is a painful question. In modern words, it sounds like this: “God, are you still ignoring me? How long are you going to be silent?” Four times in this short psalm, the writer asks, “How long?”

The psalm feels like a broken relationship. The person who feels abandoned keeps reaching out, but hears nothing back. The silence hurts. The writer feels ignored, alone, and forgotten.

Many of us have been there. We pray, but nothing changes. We wonder if God has walked away. But here is the truth: God cannot forget you.

The prophet Isaiah recorded God’s response to people who felt abandoned: “The Lord has forsaken me, my Lord has forgotten me.” God answers with a powerful image. Then God says, “See, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands.” In other words, God has written our names where they cannot be missed. We are always before God.

That does not mean we will never experience doubt or silence. The psalmist still had questions. But by the end of the psalm, he says, “I trusted in your steadfast love.”

Faith does not mean we never struggle. It means we continue to trust even when we do not understand. If you have wandered from God, if your heart is not right with God, or if you want to change, Christ offers forgiveness and restoration.

There is one very important thing God can forget: our sins. Scripture tells us that when we repent, God remembers them no more. God will not forget you. But God will forget what separates you from Him. That is good news worth holding on to.