Saturday, January 02, 2010

Never Say "Never"

Keep your life free from love of money,
and be content with what you have,
for He has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

Hebrews 13:5
You may have heard the saying, “Never is a long time.” That’s true. It’s very easy to say “always” and “never,” but it’s a lot harder to keep a promise that long. I remember an old maxim from my school days : “If a true or false question says ’never’ or ’always,’ it’s always false.” That doesn’t always work, but it does make my point: it’s hard for humans to keep a promise forever.

Maybe you’ve been “BFF’s” with someone. Maybe you don’t even talk to that “BFF” anymore. Maybe when you were little you thought you would always like to do some activity, and as you’ve grown up, you find it boring. Maybe you were sure you would never like some kind of food and now it’s one of your favorites! We should be careful with words like “always” and “never.’
Unlike humans, when God says “never,” that’s exactly what he means. In Hebrews 13, the author tells persecuted Christians they can trust God because he will take care of them. They don’t need to stockpile money, because money can’t protect anyone. Instead, they should be content. Contentment is a tough thing—it isn’t just ignoring the difficulties around us and pretending they don’t exist. Rather, contentment is a quiet confidence that God is in control and everything that happens is part of His good plan.
But how can we know that God is really working in our best interests? He has made a promise to us, which the writer of Hebrews quotes from Deuteronomy 31:6, 8: “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” What an amazing promise! To know that God is with us, that he is on our side, that he is protecting, defending, and strengthening us in every difficulty—amazing! And to know that His promise is good forever—priceless. He will never leave or forsake us.

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