“I the Lord do not change.”

Malachi 3:6-7

“I the Lord do not change. So you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed. ⁷ Ever since the time of your ancestors you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord Almighty. “But you ask, ‘How are we to return?’

If you are seeking God He will be found if you seek after Him with all your heart, do you know why I can make that absolute statement?  In Acts 17:27, we are told; “God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us.”  Salvation that requires no conviction and no commitment but walking in front of the people sitting in seats and taking a preacher's hand is of no value, and it will not change your life.  I can testify to that in my life, I became a Baptist but thought I believed in Jesus, I did not ask Him to forgive me; I was meeting a requirement of the local church.

We live in a changing society and I have seen that change in 76 years of living on planet earth, and it matters not what you say all of us need bedrock that we can anchor on. “I the Lord do not change.”  The prophet Isaiah often spoke and shared what God wanted us to know about Himself; we find such information in Isaiah 42:8, “I am the Lord; that is my name I will not give my glory to anyone else, nor share my praise with carved idols.”

What about what Isaiah was given in Isaiah 43:13, “From eternity to eternity I am God. No one can snatch anyone out of my hand. No one can undo what I have done.”  And this last word today from Isaiah: “Remember the things I have done in the past. For I alone am God! I am God, and there is none like me.” (Isaiah 46:9)

They ask this question; “But you ask, ‘How are we to return?’  In Psalms 51:17, “My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise.”  My friend Bill often said you have got to mean it; I mean as if your life depended on it.  That brings one to this promise found in Romans 10:9-10,  ^“If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.  For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.”

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice