Are you a person of your word? Not everyone is. Many people are unpredictable, undependable, impulsive, erratic, unstable. They’re hot one day, cold the next. They change their opinions and positions. Change is a constant of life…but God is a rock of stability. We can rely on Him to do as He has said. It is His nature to be faithful. “God said it, I believe it, that settles it.” He will never let us down. We can’t say that about people. In Malachi 3:6 God says clearly: “I the Lord do not change.”
Are you the same person you were ten years ago? God never changes, never deviates. “He will never cease to be what He is and who He is” (Tozer). He remains the same--yesterday, today, and forever.
Think back on the mythology you studied in school. Remember how the pagan gods were capricious, unreliable, inconsistent, untrustworthy, dishonest, conniving—in fact, they were a mirror reflection of the people who dreamed them up—made in their own, faulty image. Not so the God of the Bible.
Who God is can’t be expanded or diminished. He never learns or forgets, and His character, never changes. He remains the same, consistent always. Unlike us, God isn’t fickle. He will keep His word. The prophet Samuel writes, “He who is the Glory of Israel will not lie, nor will He change His mind, for He is not human that He should change His mind,” I Samuel 15:29.
Think over the many attributes of God we’ve covered. God is always holy, always just, always mighty, always merciful, always sovereign, always loving. Not “sometimes.” “Always.” God remains the same. What He is now, He will be forever.
Most importantly, from our point-of-view: God keeps His promises. When Jesus said, “Come unto Me, and I will give you rest,” You know He will. You can count on it.
Psalm 199:90, “Your faithfulness endures to all generations; You have established the earth, and it stands fast.” God is eternally faithful. This means He will never stop listening to us, never stop loving us, never stop helping us. Lamentations 3:23, “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning; great is Thy faithfulness.”
We may lose our health, our job, our friends, but we will not lose God. Because He is unchanging, He will never leave or forsake us. God says, “I love you with an everlasting love,” Jeremiah 31:3. “The mountains shall be removed, but My loving-kindness will not depart from you,” Isaiah 54:10. If you’ve ever felt rejected, go to God, who will never turn His back on you. Jesus said in John 6:37, “Whoever comes to Me I will never cast out.” Not ever.
We look back on our lives and wish we could change things in our past; we have regrets, and we agonize over mistakes made long ago. Because we learn and grow, we are self-critical of our youthful indiscretions. In sharp contrast, God remains perfect, with nothing to regret and no need to grow. We’re still learning, but God knows everything (which we will cover next time).
Jonathan Edwards said that unbelievers especially dislike this attribute of God. An unchanging deity means good remains good and evil remains evil, and God isn’t about to change the rules; nor will He overlook human rebellion. Personal accountability doesn’t change either. We are responsible for our choices and actions. We’d like to blame heredity, our environment, our parents, our schools--anything but ourselves. “The fault is not in our stars, but in us” (Shakespeare, Julius Caesar). Right and wrong do not change, because they are moral absolutes established by the One who does not change.
Sometimes God expresses conditional intentions. He sent Jonah to preach judgment upon Nineveh, and Jonah knew the threat implied blessing should the city repent. God certainly knew the outcome, and so there’s no inconsistency because the doom pronounced was the motivation the city needed to repent.
When we’re tempted to do wrong, God will help us. I Corinthians 10:13, “The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, He will provide a way out so that you can endure it.” We can count on God to provide other options. We’re often pressured but never forced to sin. It is up to us to take the way out, and we can count on there being a way, because “God is faithful.”
It is comforting to know that God will not change in His commitment to us. He will always love us. Because God is faithful we will be kept secure. From everlasting to everlasting, He is God. When we’re discouraged, let’s remember: “Faithful is He who has called you, Who also will do it,” I Thessalonians 5:24. The One who began a good work in us will finish the job.
God’s constancy guarantees that He remains faithful to Himself, to His decrees and His works. He is an unchanging God in a changing world; a faithful God in a faithless world.
Who God is doesn’t depend on how we perceive Him. II Timothy 2:13, “If are unfaithful and unbelieving, God remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.” Bishop Fulton Sheen observed, “There are no atheists in all the world; there are only people who wish there were no God.” Regardless of whether people have faith or not, God remains the same.
James 1:17, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.” God doesn’t waver. We should not be surprised by suffering, nor should we expect to find the answers to our pain in this lifetime. So we trust, even when God is silent. He will always be reliable, even when we’re experiencing trials and troubles. We run into trouble when we fail to understand the character of God.
This aspect of God should fill us with a sense of security. God always has our best interests in mind, even when things don’t seem so great. He cares about our needs more than we do. He will never fail us. He is someone we can completely trust. And if God isn’t enough, then nothing is.
Psalm 102 declares: “You, O Lord, will remain the same. Long ago You laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hands. They will perish, but You remain forever.”
When we see just how faithful God is, it puts all of life into perspective. Have you ever broken a promise? God has not. God’s faithfulness is something to hold onto when we’re going through tough times. He will be with us, and will get us through. We can stand on the promises of God.
