Where Is the Lord Today?

 May 18, 2024

Saturday

Hebrews 13:5 (NASB 2020) ⁵ Make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, “I will never desert you, nor will I ever abandon you,”

It is so easy to misinterpret this scripture. On the one hand, people might think that they shouldn't work hard to get.a better job or salary. People might think they should never invest their money or save. On the other hand, people might think that by being content Jesus is going to load their boat with money so they don't need to worry about how much they have. Neither of these is the point of this scripture.

We need to put things in their proper place. Our relationship with the Lord should be at the center of our lives so that all that we do is filtered through our relationship with the Lord. The Greek uses a double negative when it speaks of the Lord deserting us or abandoning us. He will never ever desert us nor will He never ever abandon us. That relationship must be central to whatever we do. The contentment from that relationship results in satisfaction with what we have. Money is not to be loved. It is a tool to do what we need to do. You shouldn't love it any more than you would a hammer.

This, however, is going against the grain when living in this world. Too often, people are chasing after money. Their relationship with the Lord takes a back seat. They may be believers but they do not have their lives organized for the Lord. They put their possessions and the gaining of more money before their relationship with the Lord. There is no end to this pursuit.

This can be seen in the churches that many believers attend. They love the preaching that says they can get more money from the Lord than they could ever make. They are just putting a spiritual bow around a secular pursuit. They are still putting money at the center of their lives. They are just claiming that it wasn't from hard work. They claim that God gave it to them because He loves them more than those who are living in poverty. Nothing is farther from the truth.

This is often seen in the man who works all the time so that his children can have nice things. They need him but his pursuit of the nice things keeps him from them. Dad becomes the ATM rather than the father he needs to be. The children can't have Dad so they settle for the things he gives them. He failed to put things in their proper place. That certainly didn't mean that there weren't times he needed to work overtime but the pursuit of the nicer things for his children didn't take the place of his presence with his children.

The challenge is to keep things in their proper place. There must be moments of assessing where you are with the Lord. There must be times when you admit when you had your last quiet time, attended church or discipled someone. There must be a time when you admit whether you know that the Lord will never desert nor leave you because you have His presence right now or you don't know where He is in any of your recent days.

Too often, people are desperate for the Lord until they have money. Then, they don't need Him anymore. But that can't be you. You must (and I do mean must) make sure things are in their proper place.

So, do you know the Lord will never leave you nor abandon you because you have a strong relationship with Him now or are you trying to live off of money rather than a relationship with Him?