Protection in the Face of Fraud

A few Saturdays ago, I found myself singing Hymn 370, ‘We are hid with Christ forever’. It continued to come to thought right through the morning, particularly the line that ‘ we are hid with Christ’.

About mid day, I was out doing some errands and I received a text message and voicemail from my bank asking that I contact them as soon as possible. I returned home shortly, rang the bank and discovered that my credit card had been fraudulently used. The bank stopped the card, advised me that I wouldn’t be charged for any of the fraudulent charges and made arrangements to replace the card.

As I hung up the phone, the line ‘we are hid with Christ’ came again to thought. It then dawned on me that I had just had proof of this. In spite of my credit card being misused, I had been hid and protected- the bank had quickly noticed it and contacted me, I wasn’t incurring any wrongful charges and the card was quickly being replaced. I was very grateful.

Yet, later that day and into the evening, the experience niggled me. I realised that it wasn’t enough simply for me to be hid with Christ. This wasn’t an exclusive club! How was I seeing the people who had fraudulently used my card?

The first verse of the 23rd Psalm came to mind straight away. “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.” I saw very clearly that I couldn’t see anyone as wanting or lacking anything. Therefore, I couldn’t see the people who had misused my card as lacking anything and needing to resort to dishonest means in order to get them. Furthermore, I couldn’t see or accept them as ever being ‘mis-led’ , as God was and always is their Shepherd guiding them in honest paths. I acknowledged that each of us, as a child of God can only feel and know a sense of abundance.

These thoughts eliminated the niggles. Each time I needed to supply a company with my new credit card information, I used it as an opportunity to remind myself that the Lord is each person’s Shepherd and that no one can ever want.