Your life is always in flux. You are growing, aging, changing, becoming stronger in some ways and finding yourself weaker in others. People move in and out of your life like wind and, looking about you, you catch your breath as you conclude that there is nothing here today that is promised to be there tomorrow. This can be overwhelming and a little frightening. Humanity searches for a constant and misplaces confidence upon a thousand different things which prove unworthy somewhere along the way. The quest for security, purpose, meaning and cohesion is placed within us by the God who calls us to discover all of this in Himself. Yet the human race is skeptical that an invisible God might be willing or able to satisfy this deep longing. Many would call me a fool for declaring that the deepest longings of the human soul are only satisfied in God. With all that this world places before our eyes, why would I risk losing so much as I wait upon a God I cannot touch? Human desire is so intense that we long for immediate satisfying to the inner ache so that many end up worshiping the creature more than the Creator. It is only those who have been made wise in Christ who can confidently declare that there is no lasting soul-comfort in this world below. This is not a cry of catastrophe but of confidence. Even the most precious elements of this life are transient so the enlightened Christian no longer looks down or around; we look upward and forward. We know that we need to find something more. Something beyond. Something undiminished.
“For I am the Lord, I change not…” – Malachi 3:6
“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” – Hebrews 13:8
“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “Who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” – Revelation 1:8
And there we have it. The lone satisfying object of mankind’s longing for security and meaning is found in the only entity in existence that has never changed, can never change and will never change. God is the same as He has ever been and, upon this fundamental rock, we must live and die. He is the undiminished God. He does not lessen when you are suffering. He does not become greater when you are abiding in clear blessing. When your faith is crystal clear and settled He is the same God as in those moments when what you once thought for certainty is now being doubted. If multiple people are with you and for you, encouraging your every move, God is no greater then than He is when you have been left behind to fend for yourself. At that moment when you were delivered from your sin and were convinced that the merciful God was gracious and welcoming, He is no more committed to you than in those days when sin has tangled and torn you in its long and unyielding barbs. Jesus Christ was as glorious in the sea’s tempest when the disciples believed they would sink as He was when three of them beheld Him in glory on the mount of transfiguration. God does not morph in His nature in accordance with human experience. He has not grown, evolved, shrunken or diminished in the slightest. Perfection remains perfection – it cannot be lessened and still be perfect nor is there any need for perfection to be improved. God’s glorious nature cannot enlarge nor atrophy in the least even as our world is filled with fluctuating goodness and chaos. The One who was is. The One who is will forever be. The One who will be has always been. These are not statements about time…they are declarations about His nature.
Be wise today to remind yourself that, because He cannot change in His own nature, He will not change in His will toward you. You, His child, have been destined for the fullest glory. He cannot be God if that were not to come to pass. He cannot rest until every speck of impurity and weakness and sin and need is expunged from your identity and, where they once resided, power and glory and beauty and victory made to remain. The process of sanctification will not be terminated until you are abiding in the same impeccable perfection as your Savior. God cannot leave one of His elect as an unfinished project – born first by His decree to die…born twice by His gift to live with Him…born forever to reveal His glory throughout the endless ages. Our thoughts are far too low and focus on merely surviving or being eased and assisted just enough to make it another day in our world of shifting sands. We must raise the aim of our faith and remember that the arrow will ultimately hit the bullseye of eternal perfection. He cannot leave you undone. Yours is the undiminshed God. His commitment to you can never be turned away or left incomplete. You have been given a victory that is as secure as He is faithful. He tells you today not to despair and fear because He has decreed the final outcome from eternity past and sees it this very moment as it will ever be. Breathe, Christian friend. He’s not finished with you yet. That is why you will carry on in secured peace today with the God of constancy who will never let go of you.