Declare the Lord’s Immutability!

Scripture:  Psalm 33:11 – “The counsel of the Lord stands forever,  The plans of His heart from generation to generation.”

Malachi 3:6 - “For I, the Lord, do not change; therefore you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed.”

Numbers 23:19 - “God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent; Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?

I feel pretty confident that the events that have transpired in recent years have definitely affected us.  In having to distance ourselves from family, church family, friends, we are much more aware of just how vulnerable and limited we are.  Why does the Lord bring us (believers) to places where we can find no comfort, but the comfort found in Him?  When things are well and well for so long, we begin to drift away from where our Lord would want us to be.  We begin to practice self-worship, idolatry, etc. No longer are we concerned with building the kingdom of God; no, we want to build our own kingdoms.  So then, the Lord must prove His love; and He grabs our attention with what only He knows will do so.  He begins to touch areas of our lives, such as, loved ones, money, jobs.  He gets our attention by whatever means necessary (say a pandemic).  He brings us to places that we are not able to climb up out of without Him.  We can say like the Psalmist, “I would have fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord.”  The Lord begins to appeal to us again; we begin to pray and desire Him and His closeness.  We want Him to do a work on our behalf.  He has us just where He wants us…dependent upon Him!  Early in life, I would hear God’s character expressed;  and I understood He was all powerful, all Knowing, even; but I could not  wrap my head around His immutability.  God never changes?  How does His immutability bring credit to His character?  Well, today, I understand His immutability to be His consistency and persistency to run after those who are His.  I am sure you can see it, too.  His immutability refers to His steadfast love, everlasting mercy, constant grace, far-reaching peace; He forever provokes us to Hope-Hope that can be found only in Him.  In Lamentations 3, Jeremiah cried to the Lord; he prophesied, but was not accepted by the nation (people, generation) to whom he was called; and then He remembered that despite our bent to neglect what pleases our Lord, The Lord remains ready to pardon and receive us back to Himself.  Jeremiah recalled the Lord’s goodness; and went on to try to understand God and what causes Him to be so forgiving, restoring, loving…Jeremiah asked the Lord, “Is it because of Your mercies that we are not consumed?”  Jeremiah put aside his hopelessness; and grasped hold to His Hope and Faith again.  He recognized that our acts of neglect toward the things of God warrant death, but instead, the Lord gives us many opportunities to repent and return back to Him.  We like Jeremiah can declare with JOY, Great is Your Faithfulness, God!

Prayer:  Lord, we often get stale and lost in ourselves; our hearts begin to wax cold toward You, the only lover of our Soul; we begin to run away from Your Awesome and everlasting love; Oh, but Lord, You are with us and has made it known You will never leave nor forsake us;  We say Thank You, Oh Lord!!  Thank You for never changing towards us and always longing to love on us and bring us to what our Faith in You truly means-Hope!  Bless You, Oh, God!!!  In Jesus’ Name-Amen

(by Lisa Williams)