“Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! Isaiah 49:15
“God Himself invites us to cast all our care upon Him, and He complains, in inconceivable goodness, that we employ our strength, our riches, and our treasure, in countless exterior things, although there is so little joy to be found in them all.
“Wherefore do you spend money for that which is not bread, and your labour for that which satisfies not? Hearken diligently unto me, and
eat you that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness”
(Isa. lv. 2).
Oh, if it were known what happiness there is in thus hearkening unto God, and how the soul is strengthened by it! All flesh must be silent before the Lord (see Zech. ii. 13). All self-effort must cease when He appears. In order still further to induce us to abandon ourselves to Him without reserve, God assures us that we need fear nothing from such abandonment, because He has a special individual care over each of us.
He says, “Can a woman forget her sucking-child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yet, she may forget, yet will I not forget thee” (Isa. xlix. 15). Ah, words full of consolation! Who on hearing them can fear to abandon himself utterly to the guidance of God?”
Jeanne Guyon in A Short Method of Prayer (London: Low and Searle, 1875) 37-38.
Where do you find consolation? Where is your trust?
Guyon beckons us to cease self-effort and buying things which the prophet Isaiah reminds us do not satisfy. Instead we are invited to abandon ourselves utterly to the guidance of God. Though human compassion may fail, God will not forget about is.
This should give us great consolation. We can trust in God!
So what does God see when He looks at your life? Does He see “reserve” in your hearts? Or does He see you resting with “abandonment” in His absolute care? Having returned safely home from India, I am thankful to serve a God of compassion who can be trusted to guide and provide.
Only those who cease self-effort grasp the generous consolation of His special individual care. Have you?