Day 270 No Orphans

 

9/27/2026

"I will not leave you as orphans; I will

come to you."  

John 14:18 

 

One truth that I hold onto, something that really has taken hold of my life, is that God promised that He would never leave us or forsake us. All throughout scripture He makes similar promises always to His people through Moses and Joshua, and Jesus personally speaks to his disciples to trust Him. I know what it's like to be alone, and in a sense abandoned, as I believe divorce is that and a death to promises that should last a lifetime. 

When Jesus was trying to tell His disciples that He was going to be put to death and going to heaven to be with His Father, they did not understand. They had been with Jesus continuously for three years, eating with Him, living with Him, listening to Him teach, and watching Him minister to the needs of others and performing miracles. They could not accept that their time with Him on earth was over much less the thought of His death. They believed He was Messiah, Son of God, but they did not understand what He meant about the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus tells them:

"If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another helper that he may abide with you forever - the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be with you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you" (John 14:15 -18).

The disciples were confused not fully understanding what Jesus had been trying to say to them. They repeatedly asked Him where He was going, to show them the Father, and other questions in an attempt to know what Jesus was trying to share. Earlier He had shared with them that because He was going away that they would do greater things than He had done, because He was going to send them a Helper:

"These things I have spoken to you while being present with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to You" (John 14:25-26).

Jesus knew also that since the world hated Him, it would hate them also, because they represented Him and were teaching about Him. He knew that they would need power from God, anointing from God, in order to stand against the devil's attacks. He knew they had to be filled with God's Spirit in order to perform works of God's grace - healing and miracles such as they had witnessed with Jesus, as well as those they had seen when Jesus sent them out two by two. They were gifted with the ability to perform these acts, because Jesus breathed on them, filling them with power. Now Jesus is promising a greater gift, because He was leaving. 

May people do not understand the ministry of Holy Spirit as Helper, but His Presence offers so much more. He comforts in times of grieving, He listens and communicates with us, and He intercedes for us. When we are born again we receive the Spirit of God living within us, but the gift of Holy Spirit and power that falls as on the day of Pentecost comes from an insatiable hunger for more of His Presence. Speaking only from my experience I can say that the awareness of what Jesus did for me on the cross, his suffering because of my sins has become so obvious to me where I can actually see Him hanging on the cross for me, look into His face, and see Him taking my place. My surrender to His will where I want more of Him and none of myself. It's dwelling with Him in the Secret Place of the Most High, under the shadow of His Almighty wings. I begin to grasp what it means to become the bride of Christ, living for Him.

I always thought that I needed to belong to someone in order to be complete. Growing up in my era girls married, had children, and husbands took care of them. It's the little white house with the white picket fences, a few kids, and a dog. It started out rocky for me, then I had twenty-five years, not always good, but we kept together and worked it out, or so I thought. But through the pain and disappointment of my earlier life, I have tasted the Kingdom of Heaven. We think we need another person to be complete, but as Christians we are complete in Him. Even when someone loses a spouse, a life partner, and they feel no desire to live without that one, this is the time to seek God's love and understanding. To learn what it means to be wholly His. There is a time and a season for everything according to God's Word, and when I think I am beginning to understand, He gives me another lesson in trusting Him. Life is difficult, but with Him we know we are never alone, and we are certainly not orphans. We have a home, and our Father has made provision for us. We are never alone.