THINGS CHANGE - BUT GOD DOESN'T

THINGS CHANGE - BUT GOD DOESN’T

By Pastor Mark Taylor

“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot,” (Ecclesiastes 3:1-2).

Today, we live in a world of rapid change. The evidence of change is all around us: Spring becomes summer. Summer becomes fall. Fall becomes winter. Winter becomes spring. The young become aged and the new becomes old and so on and so forth.  Because everything has a season, nothing (at least on earth) lasts forever. God has appointed a "season" for everything. Seasons have beginnings and endings. They last, but not too long. In the life cycle there is a season for conception and growth, a season for childhood and youth, a season for middle age and a season for old age, followed by death. It's all quite natural; it's all ordained by God.

Our lives will be a lot less stressful if we recognize that the omniscient hand of God has appointed a time when things are to be done, and He has a predetermined duration for those things to last. God has appointed the times and seasons, the events of our lives, the happy and the sad, the easy and the difficult.

"He [God] has made everything beautiful in its time.” (Ecclesiastes 3:11).  The word translated "beautiful" doesn't mean "lovely" or "pretty." It means “mature” "fitting," "appropriate" or "proper." There is a fitting point in time that God has determined something should happen. Accordingly, God will never be late and He'll never be early.

Furthermore, He knows the proper duration for that event. He never holds it over too long or cuts it off too short. He knows exactly the number of days He's given to you, and nobody can shorten those days; nobody can lengthen them either. Our times and seasons are in God's hand. And what we entrust to God's hand, God makes "proper" in its time.  The day of our death is, in His hands, every bit as wonderful as the day of our birth. When you live and die in the knowledge of God's eternal plan, you live and die with this confidence--God makes all things beautiful in its time.

“I am going to do something new. It is already happening. Don't you recognize it? I will clear a way in the desert. I will make rivers on dry land.” Isaiah 43:19  For God to fulfill that promise in Isaiah, He has to bring about change. When God does a new thing that means that there are changes about to happen. “Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery but today is a gift from God” That's why we call it the "present" Bible says “This is the day the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it”.  (Psalm 118:24)

The Lord did not grant us another day on earth to worry and be anxious about what was going to happen next. He gave it to us to rejoice and be glad in Him and be productive in whatever way we could because each day is a gift from God. 

His promise is that He would never forsake us. God’s grace pours out to all who will trust Him. You don’t have to earn it. You just have to be in relationship with Him to receive His grace.

God Is an Agent of Change - However, God Does not Change

Malachi 3:6 says “For I, the Lord, do not change...” God is the same God as He has always been and always will be. One of the attributes of God is that He is Immutable... meaning that He never changes. God is the only person or thing that is not subject to change. His nature never changes. 

Hebrews 13:8, says “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” by yesterday is meant all time past; by today, the time present; and by forever all that is future, from the present time to eternity. 

Becoming a Christian requires change. We must remove old habits and develop new ones. God's word is the best source of guidance for self-help and motivation for self-improvement.  True repentance is necessary for salvation; not merely sorrow that one's sins are known, but total transformation and knowledge that all sin is detested by a pure and holy God; a knowledge that our sins are against God, as well as others.

In Matt. 16:24, Jesus said “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me." Deny himself... not indulge all his earthly desires. Putting aside one's own thoughts, wants, and even needs, to follow Jesus.

Jesus said, "Unless you 'repent' [change your mind and turn around], you will all likewise perish." (Luke 13:2) Repent means that you must "change your thinking" and "turn away from your old ways”. "Jesus said, "...blessed [are] they that hear the word of God, and do it.” (Luke 11:27, 28). You will be blessed by following the words of Jesus Christ the Lord; to do them.

We come to the Lord in our weakness, in our inability, in our sin and in our failure. We choose to believe His love and ability to change us, as we rest in His grace. The result is that we grow.  “We grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 2 Peter 3:18

Today — He is the same; if we are walking humbly with Him. He will be our God — and we shall be His people! So Let us cultivate . . . intimacy with Him, dependence upon Him, concern to please Him, fear to offend Him, zeal to glorify Him; then it must be well with us in health and sickness, in plenty and poverty, in life and death! For He is the same, and will never turn away from doing us good .