I take great comfort in knowing that the love of God towards us is unchanging. We see over and over in Scripture the story of a God who pursues His people with loving affection. The character of God, as you’ve read in these pages, is one who is:
These characteristics, shown to us by a God of great kindness and love, show us that unlike our faulty, failing hearts and changing emotions, the God of the Bible is one who is ever-extending towards us.
This is good news.
The unchanging nature of our God means that we never have to wonder if he wants to hear from us, never need doubt that our failures have separated us, never need worry that love has been lost because of our uncertainty. Sometimes we are lost more than we are found. Such is grace.
Knowing Jesus has been the great adventure of my life. I have found that it is in relationship with him that I find my truest hope and meaning. In the book, I explore several stories of those who met Jesus and found their lives forever changed. The stories of Scripture invite us to consider what happens when we meet Jesus and the change it brings.
There’s a passage of Scripture that unpacks this for us beautifully in the epistle of Galatians, Chapter 5, reading from the ESV:
16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.
The contrast of these two ideas reminds us that when we walk with Christ, we find our lives are made new by the power of the Spirit of God. The contrast reminds us that Jesus did not come to make better people, but to make new people. So the question for us today is – do you know this unchanging God? And how does knowing Him change you?
