In the generation of my parents it was the custom of many young Christians to choose for themselves a "life verse." The young person would ask God to give them some verse from the Bible that would go with them all their lives. It was often a promise or a statement of some aspect of God's character or something they felt reflected what they thought to be the direction for their lives.
When my parents met and began to fall in love, they discovered that they had both chosen the same verse, (Deuteronomy 31:8): "The Lord himself will lead you and be with you. He will not fail you or abandon you, so do not lose courage or be afraid."
As children, my brothers and I often heard the story of the life verse, and we could see in the lives of our parents that God had indeed been faithful to prepare their way and to go with them wherever they went to serve him.
Many years later I discovered that the writer of the letter to the Hebrews had referred to this verse: "Keep your lives free from the love of money, and be satisfied with what you have. For God has said, 'I will never leave you; I will never abandon you.'" (Hebrews 13:5). By that time I had learned New Testament Greek, and I saw something in this verse that was very encouraging.
In some languages, like English, it is forbidden to use two negative words together, because it is felt that they cancel each other. It is wrong in English, for example, to say "I do not have no pen," because it means "I do have a pen." In other languages, however, the extra negative strengthens the negative statement. So in Hebrew it is perfectly acceptable to say "I do not have no pen."
The Greek language also frequently uses a double negative to strengthen a statement. However, in (Hebrews 13:5) we have something very unusual: a double negative followed by a triple negative. We might translated it, "I will never, never leave you; I will never, no never, not ever abandon you."
We can have no doubt whatsoever that God will be faithful to stay with us. He will never, no never, not ever leave us. Never.
- 15 OCTOBER -