Brianne Leckness sat on the steps of a church, abandoned by her mom and step-dad. Brianne was 3 years old. Her parents had pinned a note on her shirt: “Please take care of her. We can’t any longer.” Passed from foster home to foster home, Brianne grew up the best she could. Brianne remembers how, on her 18th birthday, her mother “blew into town [and] wanted us to go on The Montel Williams Show and say how she really never wanted to give me up.” But Brianne knew the obvious truth: Her mother hadn’t wanted her.

Such a story rips into our heart. It’s impossible to imagine such callous desertion. Thankfully, few of us have faced this kind of abusive abandonment. We have all, however, felt the sting of rejection. We have all, in our own way, been left alone. A divorce leaves us without a parent. A misunderstanding leaves us without a friend. An economic downturn leaves us without a job. Whatever the trouble, the result is the same: We feel alone.

When we’re in this place, God’s bold words echo with hope and perfect clarity: “I will never fail you. I will never abandon you” (v.5). This straightforward assertion does not mean that our human pain immediately dissolves or that we downplay the seriousness of others’ neglect. What it does mean, however, is that God’s presence can heal our most lonely places (v.6). God’s love is the love we are most desperate for, and God’s love will never wane. It will never run thin. God’s love will always—always—be with us.

When God says He will not “fail” us, He promises that He will never abandon or neglect those He loves. God’s love will never let us go, never leave us to ourselves.