GOD HAS NOT FORGOTTEN YOU

₦Sermon 23

GOD HAS NOT FORGOTTEN YOU
( A Sermon Preached by Fortune E.C. Nwaiwu

 “Can a woman forget her nursing child, or have no compassion for the child of her              
   womb? Even these mothers may forget; but as for me, I will never forget you!”
———Isaiah 49: 15.ISV.

Texts: Isaiah 49:1-16; Hebrew 13:5-6

At times when we face a little hardship and challenges in life, we think that God has abandoned us. We should know that a time of trouble is a time of prayers to remind God of our plights. Never be catnapped or drop off from your faith and slack in praying, keep on praying until the Lord re-establishes you. Isaiah 62:6 and 7 says. “You, who pray to the Lord, don’t be silent! Don’t allow him to rest until he re-establishes Jerusalem”. Your daily prayers remind your God about your situations.

Woe to any woman that would give birth to a baby and abandon it; and woe to the grown up baby that would rise against the breast that fed him. Though God knows that human beings are fallible and are capable of forgetting their children, he asserts with a comforting message that even if our mothers can forget their nursing babies, as for him, he will not forget you — Isaiah 49:15. He will remember and restore you like a barren woman whose womb is restored to fertility.

In the history of ancient Israel, a barren woman carries a heavy load of shame and disgrace. Here in the book of Isaiah 54:1-3, the Lord likens captive Israel (Who felt that God has abandoned them in their exile) to a barren woman who can now sing because of the God’s promises and remembrance.

Sing, O childless woman, you who have never given birth! Break into loud and joyful song O Jerusalem you who have never been in labour, for the desolate woman now has more children than the woman who lives with her husband; says the Lord.

Note: the Babylonian’s exile and captivity meant more than human oppression. To Israelites, it meant shame, disgrace, and humiliation. And today in our generation, people treat barren women as mediocrities or insignificant persons. Such women are taken like those that are not capable of producing children which the society extremely frown at with contempt. They bear it in mind that any barren woman caused herself to be barren because either some active abortion drugs which she uses have damaged her womb beyond curable or as a result of countless atrocities she might have committed at her youthful age.

A barren woman is prone to receive mockery and all sorts of bad words from neighbours. At a time, Hannah’s womb was shut down and her co-wife Peninnah used it as an avenue to suppress her in the family because she has so many children for Elkanah, a man from Ramathaim Zophim, from the hill country of Ephraim. But when God showed Hannah a favour, a son and other three sons and two daughters  were given to her and Samuel her first son is more famous than the children of Peninnah thereby in some extent in line with the statement, for a desolate woman now has more children than the woman who lives with her husband. Although the statement was made for the multiplicity of the number of children in Israel who were in exile, it may also be applicable to any woman who has been exiled from her father’s house to a man that does not give her a child because of her infertility. Believe the message today that God will never forget you but remember you in your pathetic situations. Don’t worry or remember the shame of your youth for your creator will be your husband! He is your redeemer!  May God remember you this year!


———Meditation Point———
God who maketh the barren woman to keep house and to be a joyful mother of children (Psalm 113:9 KJV), may you remember me this year as you remember Hannah. Do not remember my youthful sins and transgressions; but remember me in light of your gracious love, in light of your goodness, LORD (Psalm 25:6 ISV). This I ask through the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, amen!