“The LORD will not abandon his people, because that would dishonor his great name. For it has pleased the LORD to make you his very own people.”
1 Samuel 12:22 NLT
http://bible.com/116/1sa.12.22.nlt
Why hasn’t God zapped me off the planet yet?
If we are being honest, I think we all have times in our lives where we fear or wonder if God will suddenly turn his back on us for all of our sins. We wonder what keeps God from smiting all of us at anytime; why is He so faithful to a people that have proven over and over again for thousands of years that we are evil, selfish, lazy, gluttons, quick to anger, slow to listen, and every other sin you can find?
We get insight into God's faithfulness in 1 Samuel 12:22. We learn that God is faithful, not because of who we are or who we fail to be, but because who He is. God says that abandoning us, His creation, would be dishonoring to us name. If there is one thing we have learned from God is He is highly motivated to make sure His Name stays honorable. In fact, God is often in the business of bringing glory to His Name. Louie Giglio at the Thirsty Conference aptly described this as “sounding egotistical but the thing is when you’re God it’s OK. You have no one else to bring glory to but you.” God is motivated to stay faithful for you, not because of you but because of who He is!
This is great news for us. This means it doesn’t matter how many terrible decisions we make, God won’t abandon us. It means it doesn’t matter how unfulfilled we feel, God hasn’t left us. It means no matter how good we earn we never get extra points for God to consider in staying around. In means none of us ever earn permanent status meanwhile leaving the less holy at risk. We have all been put in the status: never to be abandoned. Our behavior never adjusts this status up or down.