Some people love change, other people hate it. We moved house over the weekend which is obviously a big change in anyone's life. For me it's one of those changes that is both exciting and exhausting. I hate packing up boxes, I hate taking furniture to bits and then rebuilding it. However, I already love being in our new house! In all of our lives there are both positive and negative changes. We can experience the joy of a new relationship but also the pain of an old one falling apart. We know the excitement of a new job but some experience the grief of being made redundant. We have all felt the sting and sadness of losing a loved one. We Face the ups and downs of our own emotions and feelings, which are so unreliable. We look at the current situation in the world and see how our lives have changed so dramatically in these past few months. Even when things so back to normal, they may still be different. As Christians we are not somehow immune to these experiences. This is why it is so important for us to remind ourselves, and one another, of our unchanging God.
In Malachi 3, verse 6 God says;
'I the Lord do not change, therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed.'
God was reminding the people that despite their sin and unfaithfulness to him he had not destroyed them. This was not because of their goodness but because God is faithful to his word and he does not change. He would preserve his people, with whom he had made a covenant, there would always be some. Through this people would come the messiah who would save people from all nations. God's sovereign plan would not be thwarted. The Lord does not change.
This truth also brings great comfort for God's people today. Our God is not an changeable, temperamental being who goes back on his word, or changes his plans for us and the world. He does not change in his character and nature. This unchangeable God is trustworthy and good. Hebrews 13, verse 8 reminds us that 'Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.'
Because our God doesn't change and keeps his word, we can trust that he will keep his word to us. That one day we will go to be with him. That we will have eternal life. That we will enter into the joy of our master. Peter says that we have been born again to 'an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
These promises are so precious because they are made by the God who does not change. As we journey through our lives and all the changes that brings, we cling to our unchanging God. As we live in a world that is ever changing, we are hopeful and rejoice in our unchanging God who keeps his unchanging word.