AP

Hebrews 13:5-6   Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”  So we say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.  What can man do to me?”
As I read these familiar verses I am challenged afresh to reflect on where my real security lies.  The Author of Hebrews (and I keep an open mind as to the identity of this person.  My old King James Version tells me it is the Apostle Paul, and I am not altogether convinced by modern scholarship that this is not correct!), and those associated with him, can know confidently that the Lord will never forsake them, and with him helping them, they need not fear anything – not man, not a low bank account, nor any lack of everything they need for daily life!

Am I content with what I have, whatever it is the Lord does or doesn’t provide for me?  Do I trust him to be beside me in any and every situation in which I find myself, regardless of how threatening and challenging it might be?  What a great comfort and blessing it is to know in my head that his presence and provision are always adequate for my needs, even if my heart struggles at times!  I must listen more to what my head is telling me as I live within a culture that is constantly pressuring me to seek my security in the things of this world, and to unsettle my contentment by tempting me to long for things that other people have and I don’t.

It is interesting that when Paul was being honest about the natural inclinations of his own sinful heart in Romans 7, he chose the example of covetousness to illustrate his point (Romans 7:7-8).  “We trust in Thee, our Shield and our Defender!  We go not forth alone against the foe; strong in your strength, safe in your keeping tender, we trust in you, and in your Name we go.  Strong in your strength, safe in your keeping tender, we trust in you, and in your Name we go. … … We go in faith, our own great weakness feeling, and needing more each day your grace to know: yet from our hearts a song of triumph pealing, ‘We trust in you, and in your Name we go.’  Yet from our hearts a song of triumph pealing, ‘We trust in you, and in your Name we go’” (Edith Cherry – to the tune ‘Finlandia’).
– Bruce Christian