“God is not a man, so he does not lie. He is not human, so he does not change his mind.” (Numbers 23:19)
Recently some plans I had made a few months ago changed. It put me in a position of having to take a day to rework the original plans. I thought the new plans were in place, but then the day after reworking those new plans, I was notified that the original plans needed to be put back into place. Understand? It took me awhile to wrap my head around it too. I normally find change exciting, but after this recent experience, I realize I only like change if it isn’t a stressful inconvenience for me.
Change is a normal thing in our world. Life can change “in an instant,” “on a dime,” “in a heartbeat.” Some like the idea of the new adventure change can bring. Some do not. But there is one truth that never changes. That truth is who our God is. God not only never changes his mind he himself never changes. In Malachi 3:6, God proclaimed about himself, “I am the Lord, I do not change.”
What exactly does it mean for us that God never changes? Well, it means two things. First, it means that God’s standards never change. God’s demand for righteousness, moral purity, holy living, truth, integrity will never change. God will never water down, weaken, alter, or compromise his standards. The way to heaven that God has established will never change. We must have a personal relationship with His Son, Jesus Christ. None of these things will ever change.
But there are also other things that will never change, because our God never changes. One of the most important of these is God’s love for us. Psalm 103:17 tells us, “the love of the Lord remains forever with those who fear him.” Nor does God’s grace ever change. Ephesians 2:8-9 tells us that grace is a “gift from God.” Grace is a gift God gives and will never take back. Neither will God’s presence ever depart from us. Many verses in the Bible assure us that God will “never leave us nor forsake us.” The meaning of God never leaving or forsaking us, in the Hebrew, means that God will never put us down and walk away, nor will he ever drop us from his hands. What a reassuring comfort that is!
So while we are guaranteed to experience much stressful and inconvenient change on this earth, we have the assurance that our God will never change. He will never change who he is, all that he stands for, nor will he change his great love for us. We can tolerate the aggravation of all the changes, revisions, adjustments, and modifications that come in this world, because we have a God who is reliable, unshakable, immovable, and dependable.
Darlene