Hi Friends,
God promises us He never changes and this is so very important for us to understand! Let’s talk about it:
“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” Jas 1:17 NIV
As we pray, it is such a relief to know that God does not shift or waver back and forth. We can be certain about His promises because He is steady and constant. Think about shifting shadows for a moment. We are never really sure about what lies within a shadow because it is at least partly obscured by darkness. And if those shadows are always moving, shifting about from one spot to another, we will be left wondering what is real and what is not. This promise that God does NOT change like shifting shadows gives us complete confidence that what He says He means, and what He means He says. God is constant.
God desires only good things for our lives. He wants our lives here to lead us towards a perfect life. But what does this good and perfect life look like? It looks like that of our constant, never changing Savior’s Life. We often think this earthly life, lived in a fallen world with our own brokenness and an enemy who is real and really evil, should be all rainbows and sunshine, but that is simply not reality this side of Heaven. Instead, in order to have this Abundant Life Jesus died to grant us, we need to learn to be more and more like Him, committed towards obedience of the Father of heavenly lights. We might not think about the Life of Jesus this way, but as a Human, He struggled between His fleshly desires and the Father’s Holy Will just like we do…of course, He is the only one to have lived a totally sinless, which means totally obedient, Life. He was, is and will always be Perfect because He understood that the “good and perfect” gift the Father gives is the very power needed to remain constantly obedient to the Father’s Holy Will over our own changing wills. We need to be constant like He is, and as we pray for this ability, we will sense the Abundant Life more and more.
Lord, I want to be constant, like You. What does this look like? When someone insults us, we do not become offended and treat that person with contempt. We don’t spend the next couple of days angry, questioning everything about our character and theirs. We don’t gossip about that person or plot revenge. We might spend some time in prayer, checking our hearts and asking God to reveal if we indeed deserved the harsh words. We might pray about how we can grow and improve our character. We might even pray for God’s blessings to fall upon that person. Does that last one especially seem impossible? Was this not what our Jesus did throughout His Passion? See? Constant. What others did to Jesus did not change the way He responded to them. He always spoke the truth. He always sought to love. He always pointed to the Father above. He never became affected or infected by the sin of others.
Constant is not a word we often think about, but it is a powerful one indeed. Our Father does not change. What He says He means, what He means He says. I know this is a challenge for us, but with God’s help, we can become more and more constant and, as a result, have more and more of the Abundant Life too. It is one of my goals, how about you? Then won’t you join me?
Until we meet again, keep lifting your eyes towards God, He’s closer than you think.
<>< Peace, Diane
