God gave me a holy boost of courage in a very odd place. It was in our church sanctuary on a sunny Wednesday afternoon as, for two hours, hundreds of us mourned the loss and yet celebrated the life of Matt, a 22 year old vibrant, young man, unexpectantly taken through a terrible accident to his heavenly home!
That service not only highlighted the life of Matt but also the lives of his parents and brothers. You see, both his parents have been battling cancer for the last few years. Both! The dad’s cancer has come back seven times. During this particular week his mother needed to squeeze chemo appointments into her days of gut-wrenching grief.
WHY did this give me courage? Because, “The rains came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against the house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.”
Throughout that funeral many things pierced my heart, but somewhere in the middle, as I listened to the words of the family, I suddenly SAW THEIR ROCK, THEIR ANCHOR, THEIR UNCHANGING GOD, THEIR HOPE, THEIR FIRM FOUNDATION. HE HAD BEEN THERE ALL THE TIME IN THEIR VALLEYS! His mercies continued to be new every morning to this family. As Matt life was celebrated, HE, THE ROCK, was also being celebrated.
I left there that afternoon deeply sobered, saddened and still shocked by their loss. You see our son was then also 22! BUT a new seed had been planted in me as I heard these words forming in my heart and mind, “God, you know how fearful I am deep inside. BUT…Because YOU have so clearly been THEIR UNMOVEABLE ROCK, THEIR FIRM FOUNDATION during these raging storms, I receive new courage from You. YOU are ALIVE!!! YOU are FAITHFUL! I will depend on YOU! I will not fear!”
Last month I watch a marriage deeply scarred by adultery begin healing as the young couple ran back to the Rock, their only hope.
Last week I cried with a young mom who sees her extended family crumbling all around her. As she spoke of her wobbling faith we committed to re-focus on how we both have experienced the Rock of Ages who never changes.
And last night, I was invited by Bible study sisters to gather and read aloud a list of the many ways we have watched our Rock, our Surety, our God bring us through both the highs and lows, the joys and the sorrows of our lives. Life changes. He never will!
How shaky would be my faith IF God, my Savior was moveable like the sands on the shore! HIS PERFECT, LOVING, HOLY, OMNISCIENT, OMNIPOTENT, OMNIPRESENT, SOVEREIGN WAYS DO NOT WAVER! I run to the Rock!
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EVERYWHERE, EVERY MOMENT GOD IS UNCHANGEABLE!
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Compact Oxford English Dictionary
Unchangeable: Not liable to variation or able to be altered
Immutable: Unchanging or unchangeable
Webster’s Online Dictionary
Synonyms for Unchangeable:
Certainty
Unerring, infallible; unchangeable; to be depended on, trustworthy, reliable, bound.
Obstinacy
Adjective: obstinate, tenacious, stubborn, obdurate, casehardened; inflexible; (hard); balky; immovable, unshakable, not to be moved; inert; unchangeable; inexorable; (determined); mulish, obstinate as a mule, pig-headed.
Perseverance
Solid, sturdy, staunch, stanch, true to oneself; unchangeable; unconquerable; (strong); indomitable, game to the last, indefatigable, untiring, unwearied, never tiring.
Stability
Adjective: unchangeable, immutable; unaltered, unalterable; not to be changed, constant; permanent; invariable, undeviating; stable, durable; perennial; (diuturnal).
Antonym: changeable
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The Bible says:
Deuteronomy 32:4 – He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he.
1 Samuel 15:29 – He who is the Glory of Israel does not lie or change his mind, for he is not a man, that he should change his mind.
Job 23:13 – But he stands alone, and who can oppose him? He does whatever he pleases.
Psalm 18:2 – The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge. He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
Psalm 33:11, 119:89-91 – But the plans of the Lord stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations…Your word, O Lord, is eternal, it stands firm in the heavens. Your faithfulness continues through all generations; you established the earth and it endures. Your laws endure to this day for all things serve you.
Proverbs19:21 – Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.
Eccl 3:14; 7:13 – I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that men will revere him. Consider what God has done; who can straighten what he has made crooked?
Isaiah 28:16 - So this is what the Sovereign Lord says: See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation, the one who trusts will never be dismayed.
Isaiah 31:2b – He does not take back his words.
Isaiah 54:10 - For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but My kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of My peace be removed, saith the LORD that hath mercy on thee.
Malachi 3:6 – I the Lord do not change.
Matthew 7: 25 - The rains came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against the house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.
Romans 11:29 – For God’s gifts and his call are irrevocable.
2 Timothy 2:19b – God’s solid foundation stands firm…
Hebrews 6:17, 18 , 19 – Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs for what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath. God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged. We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain…
Hebrews 12:28, 29 - Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our “God is a consuming fire.”
Hebrews 13:8 – Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
James 1:17 – Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadow.
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Words of the Wise:
Bill Bright – Because God never changes, my future is secure and eternal.
A. W. Pink - Herein is SOLID COMFORT. Human nature cannot be relied upon; but God can! However unstable I may be, however fickle my friends may prove, God changes not. If He varied as we do, if He willed one thing today and another tomorrow, if He were controlled by caprice, who could confide in Him? But, all praise to His glorious name, He is ever the same. His purpose is fixed, His will is stable, His word is sure. Here then is a rock on which we may fix our feet, while the mighty torrent is sweeping away everything around us. The permanence of God's character guarantees the fulfillment of His promises.
Bethany Dillon –
Unwavering is your voice
Unwavering is your hand
Unwavering is the heart that bled for the sins of man
Unwavering is your will
Unwavering is your plan
The Fount of Salvation on which we will stand.
Tullian Tchividjian – The good news is that the character of God’s promises rests on the character of God himself. He throws his perfectly independent, immutable, infinite weight behind these promises…And that means that you can count on these promises with your life. God cannot break them.
Thomas O. Chisolm (1923)
Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father
There is no shadow of turning with Thee
Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not
As Thou hast been, Thou forever will be
Charles Spurgeon - It is well for us that, amidst all the variableness of life, there is One whom change cannot affect; One whose heart can never alter, and on whose brow mutability can make no furrows. All things else have changed-all things are changing. The sun itself grows dim with age; the world is waxing old; the folding up of the worn-out vesture has commenced; the heavens and earth must soon pass away; they shall perish, they shall wax old as doth a garment; but there is One who only hath immortality, of whose years there is no end, and in whose person there is no change. The delight which the mariner feels, when, after having been tossed about for many a day, he steps again upon the solid shore, is the satisfaction of a Christian when, amidst all the changes of this troublous life, he rests the foot of his faith upon this truth-"I am the Lord, I change not.”
Anonymous - The Westminster Catechism, in presenting a brief definition of God, succinctly says that He is infinite, eternal and unchangeable in His Being.
God's nature or character is immutable, that is, it has never worsened or bettered - it remains the same. God does not change, indeed, he cannot change, both in his being (ontologically) and in his will (decretally).
The constancy of his character, his nature or his essential being is brought out. Not only in his character but also in his design and purpose, so much so that Scripture affirms the eternal counsel of God: What God is doing in history since the creation to its consummation is according to his infallible and unchanging plan.
This constancy guarantees that He remains always one and the same true God, faithful to himself (in Trinitarian relationships), to his decrees (secret in himself but not being divulged and executed in history) and his works (in relation with angels and men.)
Martin Luther (1529) - A mighty fortress is our God, A bulwark never failing!
Chris Tomlin –
Great is Your faithfulness
Great is Your faithfulness
You never change
You never fail, O God
True are Your promises
True are Your promises
You never change
You never fail, O God
So we raise up holy hands
To praise the Holy One
Who was and is and is to come
Wide is Your love and grace
Wide is Your love and grace
You never change
You never fail, O God
You were, You are
You will always be
James Petigru Boyce (1887) - This is implied in his absolute perfection. Perfection permits neither increase as though he lacks, nor decrease as though he can lose. Change must be for the worse or for the better, but God cannot become worse or better. It arises in like manner from the pure simplicity of his nature. That which is not and cannot be compounded cannot be changed. God is not, however, to be so understood as to deny in him some real ground for the Scripture statements of emotional feeling in the exercise of love, pity, longsuffering and mercy, or of anger, wrath and avenging justice.Great is Your faithfulness
Great is Your faithfulness
You never change
You never fail, O God
True are Your promises
True are Your promises
You never change
You never fail, O God
So we raise up holy hands
To praise the Holy One
Who was and is and is to come
Wide is Your love and grace
Wide is Your love and grace
You never change
You never fail, O God
You were, You are
You will always be
Richard Keene (1787) -
How firm a foundation,
ye saints of the Lord,
Is laid for your faith
in His excellent Word!
What more can He say
than to you He hath said,
You, who unto Jesus
for refuge have fled?
ye saints of the Lord,
Is laid for your faith
in His excellent Word!
What more can He say
than to you He hath said,
You, who unto Jesus
for refuge have fled?
In every condition,
in sickness, in health;
In poverty's vale,
or abounding in wealth;
At home and abroad,
on the land, on the sea,
As thy days may demand,
shall My strength ever be.
in sickness, in health;
In poverty's vale,
or abounding in wealth;
At home and abroad,
on the land, on the sea,
As thy days may demand,
shall My strength ever be.
Fear not, I am with thee,
O be not dismayed,
For I am thy God
and will still give thee aid;
I'll strengthen thee,
help thee, and cause thee to stand
Upheld by my righteous,
omnipotent hand.
O be not dismayed,
For I am thy God
and will still give thee aid;
I'll strengthen thee,
help thee, and cause thee to stand
Upheld by my righteous,
omnipotent hand.
The soul that on Jesus
hath leaned for repose,
I will not, I will not
desert to his foes;
That soul, though all hell
should endeavor to break,
I'll never, no never,
no never forsake.
~~~
hath leaned for repose,
I will not, I will not
desert to his foes;
That soul, though all hell
should endeavor to break,
I'll never, no never,
no never forsake.
~~~
Consider this, will you? Every time you see a rainbow, every time the sun comes up again, every time your eye blinks again empowered by an unchanging, omnipotent God…remind yourself that you know the ONE who is immutable, certain, ever strong, One who keeps His promises always!
And remind yourself that a God who is unchanging in His love, His power, His availability, and His kindness to you longs for and deserves your unchanging love, gratitude, loyalty, devotion, and service! To respond in this way brings glory to HIS NAME and delight and fullness of life for you!
This is another one of those descriptions that raises at least one mysterious question: IF GOD IS UNCHANGEABLE IN HIS WAYS, WHY PRAY? CAN I, MERE MAN, AFFECT HIS PLANS? Let’s keep trusting Him and His word – His commands, His mysteries…
I’d like to borrow the words of a young pastor and say concerning MY COMMUNIQUES: “We have to test everything. I thank God for anybody anywhere who is pointing people to the mysteries of God. But those people would all tell you to think long and hard about it. Test it. Probe it. Do that to THIS (COMMUNIQUE). Don’t swallow it uncritically. Think about it. Wrestle with it.” And I personally add, talk constantly with our most Holy Communicating God about it. Stay in His Word constantly!
Running to the Rock,
Sue
P.s. Pondering alone or with others:
1. How have you personally experienced the Glorious Godhead in the valley of the shadows…of death, of debt, of deception, of disappointment, of any kind of destruction? Or like me have you been a spectator watching or even just reading of others who have walked with firm steps on solid ground when all around was sinking sand?
2. What stories of our own life or of others could you share with others right off the top of your head and heart? If you have none, is that a problem?
3.. Do you think you have stopped enough times recently to think about the Rock of your salvation and how He has been your Surety in unsure times? How many instances instead of you ended up with “sand between your toes”, fear in your eyes, heart pounding, sinking fast?
4. How many Bible characters can you list who you saw running to the Rock instead of building their life on shifting sand? Which character do you most identify with?
5. What do you think your life would be like if God was changeable? Not dependable in His sameness? Do you wish He changed more?
