Hebrews 13:8-14 Amplified Bible
8 Jesus Christ is [eternally changeless, always] the same yesterday and today and forever. 9 Do not be carried away by diverse and strange teachings; for it is good for the heart to be established and strengthened by grace and not by foods [rules of diet and ritualistic meals], which bring no benefit or spiritual growth to those who observe them. 10 We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle (sacred tent) have no right to eat. 11 For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest as an offering for sin, are burned outside the camp. 12 Therefore Jesus also suffered and died outside the [city] gate so that He might sanctify and set apart for God as holy the people [who believe] through [the shedding of] His own blood. 13 So, let us go out to Him outside the [a]camp, bearing His contempt [the disgrace and shame that He had to suffer]. 14 For here we have no lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come.
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
When my world feels uncertain and my circumstances too overwhelming, I intentionally bolster my peace by reflecting upon the unchanging attributes of God. The more I extend myself to understand and contemplate who God is, in all of His great vastness, the less frightening my greatest challenges appear.
Scripture assures me He is alert to every danger, present in my crises, the inexhaustible source for all I need, more powerful than my greatest foe, and the Supreme Ruler who always retains full control.
What’s more, the Mighty Creator of all that ever has or ever will exist loves You and I with an indelibly perfect, fierce, and relentless love. To put it simply, the Commander of heaven’s armies, Yahweh Sabaoth in Hebrew, is f100% for us.
While numerous Bible passages reveal these truths, I find particular comfort in historical accounts that reveal God’s hand demonstrating these traits in action.
1. God Knows All
Numerous places in Scripture demonstrate what scholars refer to as God’s omniscience, His perfect knowledge of all things, past, present and future.
One example I’ve reflected on in uncomfortable seasons comes from Exodus 13.
This was immediately after the Lord rescued His people from 400 years of slavery and oppression in Egypt.
Verses 17-18 state, “When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them on the road through the Philistine country, though that was shorter. For God said, ‘If they face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.’ So God led the people around by the desert road toward the Red Sea. The Israelites went up out of Egypt ready for battle.”
1 Samuel 9-10 provides another example of God’s perfect foreknowledge in the circumstances surrounding the anointing of ancient Israel’s second king.
This story begins when a man named Saul, along with a family servant, went in search of his father’s donkey.
After an extensive journey, he wanted to give up and return home, but his servant convinced him to visit “a man of God” in the nearby town (1 Sam. 9:6).
Meanwhile, God told this man, named Samuel, to expect someone “from the land of Benjamin,” whom he was to anoint as ruler. Saul appeared, as the Lord had said, and Samuel did as commanded.
These passages remind me of two important truths.
First, God uses His wisdom for my benefit.
Second, I am usually oblivious to the dangers ahead. With these things in mind, I’m less apt to quickly respond to life’s apparent detours and delays with angst.
No matter what we encounter, we can trust that God has good, hope-filled plans for us (Jer. 29:11), ordained by Him before we took our first breath (Eph. 2:10). He has already forged our path, alert to our every challenge and mistake, and already accounted for each fork, obstacle, personal weakness on my road.
2. God Remains Close to His Children
One of the most obvious examples of God’s constant presence occurred during what scholars refer to as ancient Israel’s 40 long years of desert wanderings.
Once again, this was directly following their liberation from Egypt.
In Exodus 13:21-22 we read,
“By day the Lord went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night. Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people.”
God could’ve led His people in numerous ways. He could have whispered His guidance to Moses, their earthly leader. He could have instructed someone to give them a map designating their steps from Northern Africa to the Promised Land. Or, He could have simply instructed Moses through dreams and visions.
While He may indeed have done that, He also ensured that everyone in the group – from young to old – could visibly see His presence going before them.
This tells me that He wanted more than external obedience. The Lord wanted His people to know and trust Him. No doubt He understood how overwhelming their desert travels felt, and so He fed them, comforted them, with Himself.
At night, when anxious thoughts threatened to steal their sleep, they could look to the light emanating above them and rest assured the Lord was always near.
During the day, when the sandy expanse stretching before them elicited a sense of panic, they could once again glance up and know they weren’t ever alone.
Their Creator, Redeemer, and Provider would never leave.
He makes the same promise to us.
In Hebrews 13:5, we’re told that “God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’”
Jesus spoke the same assurance in Matthew 28:20 when He said, “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
3. God Provides
When financial struggles come, my fear and anxiety tempts me to develop a survivalist mentality. This, in turn, drives me to hoard my resources rather than live with peace and generosity. When our income sources seem too unstable or unexpected bills flood our mailbox, I find solace in His unchanging faithfulness.
As Scripture proclaims, “He owns the cattle on a thousand hills” (Psalm 50:10), He “causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous” (Matthew 5:45), and He “will meet all [our] needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:19).
He is not and never will be limited by our circumstances, bank account, or ever-shifting economy.
My favorite biblical accounts of His abundance and care comes from 1 Kings 17.
During this time, an evil king named Ahab ruled Judah. He married a Sidonian princess named Jezebel and began to worship pagan deities (Baal and Asherah).
Because of their shared wicked behavior, God caused a devastating drought that extended throughout Judah and beyond to Sidon, Jezebel’s birthplace and the city that manufactured Baal idols.
The Lord told His prophet Elijah to “go at once” to a widow living there who would supply him with food.
God’s directive couldn’t have been more unexpected. Not only was He sending Elijah to a pagan land, but He was promising to provide through one of the most destitute people in the ancient world.
In 1 Kings 17:10-12, we read
“When he came to the town gate, a widow was there gathering sticks. He called to her and asked, ‘Would you bring me a little water in a jar so I may have a drink?’ As she was going to get it, he called, ‘And bring me, please, a piece of bread.’ ‘As surely as the Lord your God lives,’ she replied, ‘I don’t have any bread — only a handful of flour in a jar and a little olive oil in a jug. I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it — and die.’
But Elijah knew God’s provisional power extended well beyond the meager staples this woman possessed.
Therefore, he said to her, “Don’t be afraid. Go home and do what you have said. But first make a small loaf of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me, and then make something for yourself and your son. For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel says, ‘the jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the Lord sends rain on the land’” (1 Kings 17:13-14).
She did as Elijah asked, and God provided food for her, her family, and His prophet, just exactly as He’d promised.
Our Father can multiply our meager resources into abundance and withhold the figurative pestilence that might otherwise deplete them. He owns all, has power overall, and faithfully cares for all – us and our loved ones included.
4. God Holds All Authority
2 Chronicles 20 records a time when a vast army invaded the northern kingdom of Judah and was advancing toward the capital city of Jerusalem.
By the time the king, Jehoshaphat, learned of this, the enemies had already reached the vast oasis at En Gedi, a mere 30 miles away. Terrified, the king immediately sought the Lord, gathered his people, and declared a national fast.
He stood before them in front of the Temple courtyard and prayed, addressing the Lord as the God of their ancestors who resided in heaven and ruled over all kingdoms and nations.
At this point in history, most individuals believed deities ruled over, and were largely limited to, certain areas or city states. Whenever war broke out and one group of people prevailed against another, they assumed this also meant that their god had prevailed, thereby conquering and seizing the land.
But the Almighty had made it clear, way back when he liberated His people from Egypt and its numerous manmade “deities,” that He alone reigned over all of humanity. In his desperate prayer, King Jehoshaphat proclaimed this truth.
God wasn’t confined to one particular local or community.
The One who always had and always would remain with His people also existed in heaven, and therefor, above all. From there, He reigned over all, and no one and nothing could ever hope to overcome, withstand Him or thwart His plans.
In the events that followed, the Lord verified every word the king uttered when He alone defeated Judah’s attackers. The ancient Israelites didn’t have to raise an arrow or a sword. They’d faced their enemies, in faith, singing God’s praises, and He fought their battle and secured the victory.
This is as true to today as it was during the time of King Jehoshaphat. Our God is for us, and as Romans 8:31 states, “If God is for us, who can be against us?”
1 Timothy 6:11-16 Amplified Bible
11 But as for you, [a]O man of God, flee from these things; aim at and pursue righteousness [true goodness, moral conformity to the character of God], godliness [the fear of God], faith, love, steadfastness, and gentleness. 12 Fight the good fight of the faith [in the conflict with evil]; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and [for which] you made the good confession [of faith] in the presence of many witnesses. 13 I solemnly charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and [in the presence] of Christ Jesus, who made the good confession [in His testimony] before Pontius Pilate, 14 to keep all His precepts without stain or reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 which He will bring about in His own time—He who is the blessed and only Sovereign [the absolute Ruler], the King of those who reign as kings and Lord of those who rule as lords, 16 He alone possesses immortality [absolute exemption from death], lives in unapproachable light, whom no man has ever seen or can see. To Him be honor and eternal power and dominion! Amen.
Although our news channels tell us today’s leaders have the capacity to destroy the foundations upon which our country rests, Scripture assures us that our Savior always retains full control. May we consistently shift our focus off the world’s fearmongering and onto our loving, all-knowing, ever-present God of abundance who unquestionably reigns over all and will never be dethroned.
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Psalm 46 The Message
46 1-3 God is a safe place to hide,
ready to help when we need him.
We stand fearless at the cliff-edge of doom,
courageous in seastorm and earthquake,
Before the rush and roar of oceans,
the tremors that shift mountains.
Jacob-wrestling God fights for us,
God-of-Angel-Armies protects us.
4-6 River fountains splash joy, cooling God’s city,
this sacred haunt of the Most High.
God lives here, the streets are safe,
God at your service from crack of dawn.
Godless nations rant and rave, kings and kingdoms threaten,
but Earth does anything he says.
7 Jacob-wrestling God fights for us,
God-of-Angel-Armies protects us.
8-10 Attention, all! See the marvels of God!
He plants flowers and trees all over the earth,
Bans war from pole to pole,
breaks all the weapons across his knee.
“Step out of the traffic! Take a long,
loving look at me, your High God,
above politics, above everything.”
11 Jacob-wrestling God fights for us,
God-of-Angel-Armies protects us.
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
Loving God, Living God, Loving Hope, Living Hope, Loving Living Life His Way! "Many things are possible for the person who has hope. Even more is possible for the person who has faith. And still more is possible for the person who knows how to love. But everything is possible for the person who practices all three virtues." - Brother Lawrence (1605-1691), Practicing the Presence of God (1692). 