Change

 

“I the Lord do not change.”

—Malachi 3:6

Too much change makes me crazy! Over the years, I’ve learned in many things to “roll with the punches” but that has been a very long and painful process.

I tend to feel that the formation of any good work a person does takes an extended period of time. Solid relationships take time to develop and nurture. It takes time to learn to trust people and for them to get to know and trust me.

I see the damage that moving a child from school to school and home to home does. While they say children are resilient, I also know that most children need stability in order to learn and to be happy.

Although as an adult I have moved my residence from place to place with some regularity, for 26 of those years, I was able to maintain my teaching position and my church in the same place. I felt established and I put down deep roots.

However, in my maturity, God has seen to it that I more and more must begin to learn to trust Him when changes occur in my life. The stability I once knew, I can no longer rely upon. My jobs haven’t remained the same. Some family members once strong have become sick and weak or have died. Church cultures change and my place in those churches have changed. I have come to accept the saying, “The only thing that stays the same is change.”

Yet, as Christians, we can know for certain that God does not change. The Apostle James writes in James 1:17:

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

Though our knowledge of God changes as we get to know Him better and better, we can count on Him to always love us and always care for us no matter what changes we may face in life.

Henry Lyte, a pastor from a fishing village in England who lived in the early 19th century, wrote these words:

“Swift to its close ebbs out life’s little day;
Earth’s joys grow dim; its glories pass away;
Change and decay in all around I see;
O Thou who changest not, abide with me.”

God wants our security to come, not from maintaining a predictable life, but from trusting in His immovable and unchangeable love and care for us. I urge you to begin to learn, as I am trying to do, to let our unchangeable God be all that you need in this ever-changing life.