09 Jan The Constant God

Jan 8

All in the Family, M*A*S*H, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Bob Newhart Show and the Carol Burnett Show are all considered among the greatest television comedy shows in history. They have something else in common: 50 years ago, in 1973, they all appeared on CBS on Saturday nights. It’s unthinkable today that the most popular shows on traditional network television would air on Saturday night. It’s now a night largely reserved for sporting events and reruns. But a half-century ago, Baby Boomers staying home Saturday nights with their young Gen X children made for a gigantic viewing audience. It’s been said that the only true constant in our existence is change: seasons, culture, our own aging bodies. It’s the chief reason why those of us who have accepted Christ into our lives take such comfort in the one true constant: God. He never changes.

The Bible is filled with verses that assure us of an unchanging God. Here are just a few:

Hebrews 13:8

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

Malachi 3:6

“For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed.”

Numbers 23:19

God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?

Isaiah 40:8

The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.

Psalm 102:25-27

Of old you laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you will remain; they will all wear out like a garment. You will change them like a robe, and they will pass away, but you are the same, and your years have no end.

Isaiah 40:28

Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable.

Psalm 90:2

Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.

In a devotional focusing on Psalm 90:2, The Reverend Billy Graham pondered the ever-changing world in which we live and contrasted it to the unchanging God:

“Have you ever thought about the collapse of time? From the days of the Lord Jesus Christ until about 1830, man could not travel any faster than a horse. In 1961, a man went into space and traveled at a speed of 18,000 miles an hour. Look how far we have come in so short a time! Sometimes when I read the papers, I think we are trying to run the Space Age with horse-and-buggy moral and spiritual equipment. Technology, you see, has no morals; and with no moral restraints man will destroy himself ecologically, militarily, or in some other way. Only God can give a person moral restraints and spiritual strength. While our world is shaking and crumbling, we need to realize that one thing will never change, and that is God. He is the same today as He was ten million years ago, and He will be the same ten million years from today. We are like grasshoppers; we appear and hop around a bit on the earth, and then we are gone.”

Humbling words, to be sure. Many of us every January pin our hopes on the new year bringing positive change into our lives. Sometimes those hopes are fulfilled, but often they are dashed.  Reverend Graham’s timeless words remind us that are only true hope is in the unchanging, one true God. After all, He hasn’t broken a promise in the entirety of time. That seems like a pretty good track record on which to pin our hopes in this new year!

— Pastor Jerry Bader