Pressed To His Heart

Even if my father and mother abandon me, the LORD will hold me close.

Psalm 27:10

For a Christian, the absolute certainty of the Lord’s love is the glue that holds everything together. It is the one thing that makes sense of life, and the reality that defines all other reality. The promise of the Lord’s unfailing love anchors the heart, no matter what.

David casts his imagination as far as it can go to find the most unlikely scenario. Who would be the last people he could imagine abandoning him? His father and mother. That’s a most remote possibility. But even if that were to happen, still the Lord would hold him close. We find similar words in Isaiah 49:15, where God says, “Can a mother forget her nursing child? Can she feel no love for the child she has borne? But even if that were possible, I would not forget you!”

Here is the promise that can burrow into the depths of your heart and make a home there. The Lord will never forget you, abandon you, or fail you. You are so precious to him that you are never out of his thoughts; you are never left out in the cold.

The Lord will hold you close. He will press you to his heart.

Maybe you’ve been betrayed or abandoned by someone who was supposed to love you forever. Maybe someone you were supposed to be able to count on—your parents, a spouse, a child, or a trusted friend—let you down, and that betrayal has made it hard for you to believe that God will never let you down. Would you pour out your hurt and confusion and anger to God right now and ask him to speak his tender and sure love to your heart? The Lord will press you to his great heart.

Father, you are the only one worthy of my absolute trust and confidence. I know I will always be disappointed if I trust others with the faith that belongs only in you. Right now, I choose to trust you and your love for me.

Let your faith in Christ, the omnipresent One, be in the quiet confidence that He will every day and every moment keep you as the apple of His eye, keep you in perfect peace.

Andrew Murray(1828–1917), South African pastor and author