Can a Woman Forget Her Nursing Child? • Deshen Daily

Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me (Isaiah 49:15–16 ESV)

The Lord reminds us that He will never forget us. Why is it essential to know that God does not forget us?

Our faith in God is the anchor that prevents us from being displaced by the storms of life. If the enemy succeeds in making us doubt God’s goodness and faithfulness in our moments of difficulty, he is almost guaranteed to win our battles in life. Just as a predator cuts off prey from the herd before attacking, the enemy often begins his attacks by severing us from that secret place of resting in God; he entices us to question God’s ability, faithfulness, or willingness to help us. And once our faith fails, our feet sink beneath the waters of troubles.

The Lord compares His care for us with that of a mother and a nursing child. He asks, “can a woman forget her nursing child?”. As we know, the bond between a mother and a nursing child is so strong that we would hesitate to think a mother can forget or abandon the nursing child. However, the Lord tells us in the same verse that mothers may forget their nursing children under specific pressures of life. After all, human love and strength are finite, and they do fail. In contrast to human frailty, the Lord’s love and strength do not fail. We will never find Him in a bad mood or exhausted from the excessive prayer requests from the earth!

Trusting in God’s care is easy when life is rosy. In fact, the context of the scripture above is not a mountaintop experience when everything was beautiful. In this passage, Israel was in tumultuous times, yet the Lord told them He had not forgotten them. Let the Spirit energize you with the strength to believe that “it is well” though everything else tells you “it is not well.” Always remember that God has not forgotten you; He cannot forget you.

So the Lord says that although a nursing mother can forget the child, He will never forget you.

What does it mean for God to forget someone?

The Lord taught me long ago that it matters if I trust Him in crisis moments—trust brings victory while fear and anxiety stifle supernatural intervention. So whenever we lose our trust and faith in a situation, we prolong the time we spend in it. Guard your heart and protect your faith in God when the waves of life beat against your house.

Ask the Spirit to strengthen you to believe that the Lord will never forget you but is working all things together for your good.