"The Lord will not forsake His people..."

In my personal devotion I came across Samuel's exhortations to Israel in I Samuel 12:20-25:

20 Then Samuel said to the people, “Do not fear. You have done all this wickedness; yet do not turn aside from following the LORD, but serve the LORD with all your heart. 21 And do not turn aside; for then you would go after empty things which cannot profit or deliver, for they are nothing. 22 For the LORD will not forsake His people, for His great name’s sake, because it has pleased the LORD to make you His people. 23 Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the LORD in ceasing to pray for you; but I will teach you the good and the right way. 24 Only fear the LORD, and serve Him in truth with all your heart; for consider what great things He has done for you. 25 But if you still do wickedly, you shall be swept away, both you and your king.”

See verse 22, "For the Lord will not forsake His people, for His great name's sake, because it has pleased the Lord to make you His people." The Israelites feared God for the sin of asking for a King. Samuel exhorts them, in much the same way that Thomas Brook exhorts believers in his "Precious remedies" not to run from the Lord because they fear Him, but to run to and cleave to Him. It was a great encouragement to me to meditate on the fact that though we often sin against God because of moments of unbelief, He never stops loving us (Romans 8:39), not even when we fail to love Him with all our "heart, soul, mind and strength."

Samuel says, in verse 21, "And do not turn aside; for then you would go after empty things which cannot profit or deliver, for they are nothing." When we go after things other than God, we "go after empty things." (Matthew 6:19-21) Meditating upon truths like this is what emboldens us to "overcome the world." (I John 5:4)