Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Partners with an Unchangable God

Malachi 3:6 reads, "For I the LORD do not change..."; Numbers 23:19 reads, "God is not man, that He should lie, or a son of man, that He should change His mind, and we read in James 1:17, "...with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change." (ESV)
Our confidence in God lies in the fact that God never changes. God does not grow or develop. There are no variations in God. God is what He has always been and will forever be. We are confident in God because we know that God is not going to change His mind and leave us hanging. If God were to change His mind on one thing, how could we ever have confident assurance that He wouldn't change His mind on something else, say our eternal salvation?
There are at least two truths that we as children of God can be absolutely confident in: there is no quantitative change in God or His character. God does get any smarter, does not learn anymore, He does not develop further or grow in His attributes, character or nature.
The second truth that we can have absolute confidence is in the fact that there is no qualitative change in God. In words God is not like wine or women, He does not get better with age.
God has determined His will and plan from all eternity. Those plans are unchangeable. He is absolutely sovereign. Nothing can alter His plans, change His plans, thwart His plans or hinder His plans.
Never mistake the sovereignty of God or the immutability (unchangeableness) of God with fatalism. These characteristics of God do not breed cases of Serra Serra, or whatever will be will be, or what was or was not meant to be. In living with these characteristics of God, we are brought to a point of submission to the will, wisdom, and working of God realizing it is His best for us and we can rejoice in and magnify His character and nature o a watching world.
It is true that God has determined His plan but remember it is also true that He has ordained the means of achieving His plan. The means He has ordained often include you and me. We are partners with God as the means by which He uses to bring about His plans.
Think of it, we are partners with an unchangeable God as means by which God brings about all that He has determined by His unchanging character!
What's on your agenda today?

2 comments:

Eddie Eddings said...

Great stuff! Keep up the good work brother!

Gregg Metcalf said...

Thank you so much! I appreciate your sight also!