The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
"Change and the Changeless"
In relationship to the unchanging God, born again believers in the Lord Jesus Christ ever live in the need for change, either in growth or correction.
"But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" (II Corinthians 3:18).
"All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness" (II Timothy 3:16).
Interestingly, God's unchanging nature and being provide the means by which our need for change proceeds. If He were not inviolably who He is, we could not approach Him with complete confidence for His working to lead us further along the path of righteousness in growth. Nor could we believe He could restore us to our walk with Him in correction when we have fallen. The truth that "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, and forever" graces the pages of Scripture not only as a definitive statement of truth (Hebrews 13:8). It rather meets us personally as we affirm the perfect faithfulness of our unchanging Lord that gives us hope for the change we so continually require.
"But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord" (II Corinthians 3:18).
We may be tempted to look at ourselves and our lives with little hope for change, based on previous attempts to grow or correct matters. We overcome such temptation by "looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith" (Hebrews 12:2). Because He forever abides as who He is, and because He has promised to faithfully continue the work He began in us, we can direct our focus away from our own capacity for change. We instead set our gaze on the blessed continuity in the Christ we have so often seen effect transformation in ourselves and others. He is the same faithful one today He was yesterday. He will be the same faithful one tomorrow He is today. Yes, His eternally fixed nature and way of trustworthiness promises that our continual need for growth and change is not only possible. It is to be expected. "Being confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ" (Philippians 1:6).
We rightly look at ourselves and our lives with little confidence that necessary change can occur by our own means. More importantly, we rightly look at the Lord Jesus with complete confidence in His abiding ability to change us into His spiritual and moral image through the agencies of the Holy Spirit, the Bible, fellow believers, and God's providential working in our lives. Christ cannot be otherwise. He is who He is, "yesterday, and today, and forever." Herein lies our hope for change as we place our hope in the One who cannot change, the One who declared…
"I am the Lord. I change not."
(Malachi 3:6)
Weekly Memory Verse
I hate vain thoughts, but Thy law do I love.
(Psalm 119:113)
7543
No comments:
Post a Comment