C-19 Reflection #88: God Stays with Us

C~19 (#88)


Theme: God Stays with Us


Scripture: Hebrews 13:1-5 (NIV)

 Keep on loving one another as brothers and sisters. 2 Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it. 3 Continue to remember those in prison as if you were together with them in prison, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.
4 Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral.
5 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.”


Reflection:

In times of trouble big and small, it is not always easy to keep on with the core commitments of our lives as God's people. When this happens, it is important to go back to the core reality of who God is. Notice that this list of practices offered by the preacher/pastor of Hebrews is not a list of morals set loose abstractly for us to try and grab onto all by ourselves. That kind of try "harder activitiy",which tempts us all, only serves to deepen the crisis. The writer knows that we need to be encouraged and inspired by a vision of God for rooting our lives, international and personal. That is what verse 5 is for !!

“I really don’t know if our civilization will survive the century. Considering the growing threat of nuclear holocaust there certainly is a reason to wonder. But important for me is not if our civilization will survive or not but if we can continue to live with hope, and I really think we can because our Lord has given us his promise that he will stay with us at all times. He is the God of the living. He has overcome evil and death and his love is stronger than any form of death and destruction. That is why I feel that we should continually avoid the temptation of despair and deepen our awareness that God is present in the midst of all the chaos that surrounds us and that that presence allows us to live joyfully and peacefully in a world so filled with sorrow and conflict.” ~ Henri Nouwen


Prayer: Thank you Jesus, that you are Immanuel, God with us. Amen