Unchanging (Words of Wisdom Wednesday)

My latest audiobook was Jen Wilkin's "None Like Him: 10 Ways God is Different From Us (And Why that's a Good Thing)."  Thoughtfully written and powerful.  My favorite chapter was titled "Immutable: The God of Infinite Sameness."

“The Scriptures speak of a God who does not change.  Like the tallest mountain peak on the horizon, from generation to generation, God stands unchanging, immutable, anchoring the landscape of human existence as all else around Him ebbs and flows, blossoms and withers, waxes and wanes.  The Rock of our salvation endures.  

“For I, the LORD, do not change.” -Malachi 3:6

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” -Hebrews 13:8 

James celebrates the goodness of the God “with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change” (James 1:17). 

He is immutable, not just unchanging, but incapable of change of any kind...  The past holds for Him no missed opportunity. The present holds for Him no anxiety. The future holds for Him no uncertainty. He was, and is, and is to come.”

Honestly, I had a rough day yesterday - just feeling overwhelmed and anxious and a little shaky and off physically.  But the truth of these words is bringing me great comfort today.  God's love, His goodness, His power, His individual plan for each of us -- it's not going anywhere.  He has ordained our days, and we can trust Him.  Jen says the only real constant is not change, but GOD.  I love that.  So I am thankful that we all have the ability to change and grow and mature, even in the areas where we feel most stuck.  And I am thankful that our God will never change.

“We live differently when we regard the future as a place we will go 'if the Lord wills.'  God does not owe me the seventy or eighty years of which Moses speaks in Psalm 90.  Every year He gives is a gift, gracious and undeserved.  Thanks be to God, not just for the years He has preserved me but for the years He has ordained for me, perfect in number and known only to Him.”  ~Jen Wilkin ❤

Below are her questions at the end of that chapter... all very worth some thought.

Questions for Reflection: 

1. How is the knowledge that God does not change reassuring to you? How might it be a caution to you as well?
   
   
2. What human relationship, possession, or circumstance do you cling to for stability instead of our unchanging God? How reliable have you found that substitute Rock to be?
   
   
3. How prone are you to use "always" or "never" language in an argument?  What might this tendency reveal about your belief?
   
   
4. What "always" or "never" have you wrongly believed to be true of yourself?  Of someone else?  Of a circumstance or relationship?
   

"Close in prayer.  Write a prayer to the Lord confessing one thing about yourself you have believed to be unchangeable.  Ask Him for an awareness of where you have grown hardened and for grace to learn to change.  Thank Him for the great gift of human changeability.  Praise Him that He, the Lord, does not change!”

I hope you find this truth encouraging/comforting today, as well.  

Happy Wednesday, friends and family!