In bouts of loneliness, it can feel as though you’re forgotten. Like myself, maybe loneliness is a byproduct of isolation, even when you’re technically around people.

Back to feeling the anxiety of life, yay…

Yesterday, even though I kind of wanted to get some reading done on the porch so I can soak up some Vitamin D the natural way, I thought… I really need to read His Word right now. And why not just bring it outside with me???

So there I was. I picked up an anxiety devotional I happened to have that caught my eye after I grabbed my Bible. I didn’t even know I had one on anxiety. Shows how many books I have in my room… 🙂

Had a good time just meditating on the Word of God and soaking up some last rays for the sun’s Tuesday showing.

In my reading, the story of Hannah (1 Samuel 1:12-20) spoke to me. To summarize, she struggles to conceive and is praying her heart out at the temple. Eli thinks she’s drunk, but she explains she’s speaking to the Lord whole heartedly. Eli responds with “Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant the request you’ve made to Him.” Soon after she returns home with her husband Elkanah, the text states that “the Lord remembered her.”

Sometimes I have to look up what it means because my first reaction to the word “remember” is that He forgot.

There are some instances in the Bible where God “remembers” His people and it doesn’t mean he forgot them. His “remembering” in scripture is for our benefit because it shows that He in fact never forgot. He remembers His people and He remembers their circumstances. He is a God in action when He remembers. It shows that He is acting on His promises or a covenant He made to them.

For Hannah, she felt lonely and distraught that she wasn’t able to have a child. Her husband, Elkanah, had another wife who did have children. How gutting it must have felt to be Hannah and not be able to produce a child of her own, especially in that time and culture.

God never forgot her or her infertility. Her praying to God was for her benefit, not His.

In God’s timing, He provided this need for Hannah. It didn’t come immediately and it didn’t come when Hannah probably wanted it. The timing is always guaranteed to be perfect though.

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Here are three things I received out of my time with the Lord:

• Pray: it’s for your benefit, not God’s. What a gift He gave us that we can go directly to Him in prayer.
• Timing: It’s everything, but it’s not our everything. He holds the keys to the clock of our life.
• Remembered: You’re not forgotten. Whether it’s in loneliness or just challenging circumstances. He will always deliver.

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Have a great Wednesday!