When God Stays the Same and Everything Else Turns Around
Well goodness gracious, friend, I was sho’-nuff’ hopin’ you’d come stoppin’ by here today. So come on up here and slip through that ol’ front porch door before the screen spring flings it back hard enough to baptize you twice. Settle yourself near them pink hydrangeas while that ol’ lazy donkey across the pasture studies us like it’s plum auditin’ in a seminary classroom, and don’t pay no attention to that lil’ wood duck fussin’ down by the pond like somebody rearranged its hymnbook. Today we’re talkin’ about somethin’ wonderfully steady in an ol’ world that can change before breakfast.
God don’t never change.
Yet, Jonah 3:10 says that when Nineveh turned from its evil ways, God “relented from the disaster that He said He would bring upon them.”
Did God suddenly change His character?
Nope. Not at all.
Nineveh plum changed its direction, and God downright responded exactly according to the character He had possessed all along.
He is holy, so sin matters.
He is just, so rebellion has consequences.
He is merciful, so genuine repentance matters, too.
God wasn’t having second thoughts like somebody standin’ in the grocery aisle wonderin’ whether to buy chocolate or vanilla. His response to Nineveh sho’-nuf’ revealed His consistent character. When the people turned, they plum discovered that mercy had been in God’s heart all along.
James 1:17 says there is no variation or shifting shadow with Him. And Psalm 102:27 says, “But thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end.” That oughta downright plum steady your soul.
Circumstances change. People change. Plans change. Sometimes our emotions change faster than a ol’ hound dog hearing the supper bell.
But God remains God. He don’t never change!
Father, thank You that Your character never shifts with circumstances. Help me trust Your holiness when You correct me, Your mercy when I repent, and Your faithfulness when life feels uncertain. Teach me to know You more deeply so that my worship grows from confidence in who You truly are. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Now, head right on back down that lane with your heart plum settled, friend. An ol’ black bear may rearrange a picnic quicker than anybody ever planned, but it can’t never rearrange the character of God. Tomorrow may surprise you, but it sho’-nuff’ won’t surprise Him. Let this ol’ world git to wobblin’ if it must. You plum belong to the One that never wobbles, sways, hesitates, shakes, or fluctuates!
With joy,
Gwen
