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Epistle to the Hebrews 13: 5-9 (NIV)
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.”
6 So we say with confidence,
“The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.
What can mere mortals do to me?”
7 Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. 8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and for ever.
9 Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings. It is good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace …
God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you” (verse 5, from Deuteronomy 31: 6). It is possible that you have felt, during certain difficult stages of your life, that you had been abandoned by God. At such times have you prayed back to God his promises, promises such as those he made to his people as they were about to enter the promised land?
How much reliance do you place on the promises spoken by Jesus himself? Jesus said,
I have come that (my sheep) may have life, and have it to the full (John 10: 10).
Jesus said,
I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world (John 16:33).
Jesus said,
Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age (Matthew 28: 20b).
We cannot claim these promises of Jesus if we reject other promises for those who follow him:
no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields – along with persecutions – and in the age to come eternal life (Mark 10: 29-30).
Truly, persecutions are to be expected as an inevitable consequence of being a follower of Jesus. He is the same yesterday, today and for ever. Though two thousand years have passed, his word remains both true and relevant. Tomorrow is the international day of prayer for the persecuted church. Millions of Jesus’ followers around the world live under constant threat of harassment, violence and even death.
But the threat of harm is not to deter us from following him. The Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy (2 Timothy 2: 12-13):
if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he will also deny us; if we are faithless, he remains faithful—for he cannot deny himself.
The epistle writer had warned the Hebrews of the cost of turning back:
It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age and who have fallen away, to be brought back to repentance. To their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace. (Hebrews 6: 4-6).
So this truth, that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and for ever,” not only remains true and relevant, it is as much a warning against our faithlessness as it is a promise of his faithfulness to those who love him.