SPIRITUAL
DIARY FOR 07-28-03
My
Worship Time Focus: Stay away from the
love of money
Bible
Reading & Meditation Reference: Hebrews 13:5-6
Message
of the verse: “5 Let your conduct be
without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself
has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’ 6 So we may boldly say: ‘The LORD is my
helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?’”(NKJV) “Stay away from the love of money; be
satisfied with what you have. For God
has said, ‘I will never fail you. I will
never forsake you.’ That is why we can
say with confidence, ‘The Lord is my helper, so I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?’” (NLT)
The word
for covetousness means love of money; “1) not loving money, not avaricious.”
Avaricious means greedy, and the opposite of it is generous, so this verse is
saying that a believer should not fall in love with his money or his things,
but should be generous with what the Lord has given to him. It also says that we should be content with
what the Lord has blessed us with, and the reason for that is because the Lord
has said that He will never leave us nor forsake us. These ten cross references are found for this
section of the verse; “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” “#Ge 28:15 De 31:6,8 Jos 1:5 1Sa 12:22 1Ch
28:20 Ps 37:25,28 #Isa 41:10,17.” I want
to focus in on the word translated for “never” for it has a deeper meaning in
the Greek; “1) never, certainly not, not at all, by no means.” This shows how strong the word is.
The writer goes on to
add to these thoughts in verse six, and does it by quoting Psalm 118:6. This is a Messianic Psalm and thus it applies
to the life of those who have trusted the Messiah as Savior and Lord. It is interesting that Warren Wiersbe has
name his book on the study of Hebrews, “Be Confident” for this is what this
verse gives to believers, for this is a wonderful truth to grab hold of and to
stand on, and to live by, because “the Lord is my helper, so I will not be
afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?”
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: There is
a lot of things in these two verses that apply to my life at this time of my
life, considering the circumstance that I find myself in with my investments
with Andrew Lech. There are things in
this verse that directly apply to my life such as not trying to help the Lord
out by taking a loan out on our house and getting more interest so that I can
give more money to Christian charities.
God has made it clear to me that this was indeed wrong and that He does
not need my help, for as verse six says He is our helper, and not the other way
around. This verse speaks about the love
of money, and I believe to some extent that I am guilty of that too. I have learned from this circumstance that
the Lord has lead me into that we can live on a lot less money, and if the Lord
would ever bless us with more then we could give more of it back to Him. We have a desire to live on a fixed budget
and if we are blessed with more then the excess will be use where the Lord
directs us to use it.
The Word of God has challenged me, it has convicted me, and
it was refreshing to me too.
My
Steps of Faith Today: Not
to have a love of money, and believe that the Lord will never forsake me, nor
leave me. To believe that He is my
helper, and that man can do nothing to me that is not filtered through the
loving hands of the Lord.
Memory verses for the week:
Psalm 121:1-6
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