Hebrews 13:5-6
5 "Never will I leave you;
never will I forsake you.
6 So we say with confidence,
"The Lord is my helper;
I will not be afraid.
What can mere mortals
do to me?"
(Bible Gateway, 2017)
Maybe this approach will work better for me; to unpack one verse at a time during the week of that topic. Who knows? Let's see! Yes, I am hyper today. I drink Vietnamese coffee in the morning (Vinacafe is THE BEST THING EVER!!!! Woohoo!).
Anyway, back to the reality of things. The first line is something I really needed to hear right now: "Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have...." I am holding so tightly to my house right now and it has become a great source of anxiety for me. I find myself in a place where my credit cards are maxed out because I have, well, lived beyond my means for quite awhile. When my husband and I purchased our home four years ago, we had rented a room to my coworker which eased the mortgage payment burden a tad. When she moved out, we still spent the same on luxuries such as entertainment, clothes, etc. ( I saw "we" but it was mostly me). And now I will start paying off student loans soon, that are the size of a car payment. So, yes, I am anxious about money. My biggest drive right now is that I cannot get it out of my mind that I cannot let my house go no matter what. I love my house! I think every day about the "what if's" with regard to the mortgage payment. So basically, I have a love of money and the home it has gotten me. I think about my money problems more than I think about God daily. And I get that this is a sin.
The first verse is clearly a command. "KEEP your lives free...." I need to treat it as such. Wow, I am absorbing this probably as you are. I am just now getting it. "BE content." Another command, and something that is so difficult for me. I am always looking for the next thing. While I am eating a meal, I am thinking about what I will cook or where we will go for the next one. I do not luxuriate in the current one. When I have a day off of work, I am dreading the next day I go back, rather than enjoying the present. I did learn something interesting in a restorative yoga class that I take. The instructor says to visualize two envelopes or boxes or whatever. One is labeled "Past" and one "Future." Any thought that comes into one's mind is about something from the past or something that is going to happen. As each thought comes, place it into the correct envelope for later retrieval. Interestingly, even though I can never seem to relax, this practice works for me, when I'm at yoga (not so much when I'm not). I think that being content is a practice we have to learn, perhaps through prayer. I lack in the prayer department too. I pray in emergencies but always seem to forget to at any other time. Somehow, we need to set timers or do whatever we can to take the time to incorporate prayer into our lives so that we can ask for help and direction with these things.
God will never leave or forsake us. This is the epitome of contentedness, or should be. In the depths of my soul, I know this to be true. But at the forefront of my mind, daily, I don't think much about it. God gives us His peace if we will accept it. Even in the midst of my money woes, He has it under control. He has a plan (another verse I will go into). Perhaps that plan is for me to lose my house. No matter how tightly I hold on to these material things, I can't hold tighter than He can take away. If He does take it, it will be for my own good, to bring me into a closer relationship to Him or to put me somewhere I need to be to help someone else. As I write this, I BELIEVE that the right people will see it. That someone needed it today or tomorrow, or whenever.
And finally, the last verse indicates that because I have God, nothing anyone can do to me can take that away or make it lesser. I may feel hurt at the time, but I have something bigger to look forward to--a life in heaven when this one fades away.
References:
Bible Gateway. (2017). Hebrews 13:5-6. Retrieved July 20, 2017, from https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Hebrews+13:5-6
