Never Forsaken

Hebrews 13:5 says, “Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have. . .” That’s good enough advice, if nearly impossible to follow.  But what I find so compelling in it is the reasoning that follows the directive.  Do you know what it is?  If not, take a guess.  What source of motivating power does the author append to this enjoinder?

Give up? It is this:  “. . . because God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’”

I think that’s fascinating.  The reason we are to keep our lives free from the love of money is that God has said He will never leave us nor forsake us.  That statement explodes with the insight that a primary reason the love of money inexorably creeps into our lives is that we long for security, and we believe that money will give it to us.

Money keeps the mortgage paid, food on the table, and our lives intact.  Or does it?  What would your life be like it you believed, actually were convinced on a moment-by-moment basis, that the thing that sustains you is not money, nor food, nor anything less than God Himself?  And furthermore that He will always sustain you, come what may.  Because He will never leave you, and never forsake you, whatever you are facing will be okay.  And if it’s not okay, that will be okay.  He will never leave you.  He will never forsake you.

This promise becomes all the more astonishing when we remember that one man truly was forsaken by God.  As Jesus hung in anguish on the cross the Father turned His face away.  Specifically because Jesus was forsaken, we never need to fear being forsaken ourselves, come what may. And therefore we do not need to hope ﹘ indeed we mustn’t hope ﹘ in lesser sources of security and sustenance.

As we fast today, may the certain promise that God will never forsake you be your source of security and hope.

Tim Henderson