Thursday, October 8, 2015

No money? No problem.

"Keep your lives free from the love of money, and be content with what you have; for he has said, 'I will never leave you or forsake you.'"
(Hebrews 13:5)

There's a famous passage in the Bible that says "the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil" (1 Timothy 6:10).  Most of us know that.  Money is important, but it's not the pinnacle of life.  We don't need to make it our primary focus, the end-all and be-all of our existence.

Today I was reading Hebrews 13, and verse 5 starts off with that familiar reprise: "Keep your lives free from the love of money, and be content with what you have."  Okay.  Check.  Got it.  But then the author added one more caveat that caught me off guard: "... for he has said, 'I will never leave you or forsake you.'"  It's not just that when we fall in love (lust?) with money that bad things can happen.  It's not just hat pining for things we don't have gets us in trouble.  No.  Hebrews tells us that we don't need to "go all in" on acquiring money and things because Jesus is always with us.  He is our everything!  He can sustain us, no matter what our bank account says.  He, not money, can provide for our every need.

What a good word for me to hear right now.  I've never really been inclined to let my heart drift towards the love of money.  (I do, however, frequent Amazon.com in search of "great deals" on sale... often for things that I don't really "need.")  But we're still waiting for Jody to find a job here in the Antelope Valley.  She's decided not to commute the 1+ hour trek "down below" to where there are many more opportunities.  She wants to stay close to the church so she can be involved in the total life of our faith community.  But we're at the point (3+ months into this new appointment in California) that our savings has just about run out.

But instead of worrying about money, I'm reminded this morning that God will never leave us or forsake us.  So we'll hang tight and wait patiently on the LORD to provide.  Because that will be enough.  Amen & Amen!

No comments: