“ Lord” is the Hebrew word for Jehovah and Jehovah means that God is eternal, self-sufficient, and self-existent. God is the God who created the heavens and the earth. These things have changed over time, but God does not change. God is the God who has no beginning and no end. In Malachi 3:6, God is referring to His attributes of patience, longsuffering, and mercy. In Malachi’s day, many of the people thought God would change. But God has always remained faithful to His promises.
The Available God
Continued from February 24, 2010
“I the Lord do not change. So you, O descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed.” Mal 3:6, NIV
The “I Am God” who is not capable of, or susceptible to, change. “The I Am God” who is faithful, constant, immovable, steadfast, fixed, inalterable, invariable, and unchangeable.
The Psalmist said, “In the beginning you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment. Like clothing you will change them and they will be discarded. But you remain the same, and your years will never end” (Ps 102:25-27).
Psalm 102:11-12 says, “My days are like a shadow that lengthens, and I wither away like grass. But You, O Lord, shall endure forever, and the remembrance of Your name to all generations.” This fact will never, ever change. God is the same “I AM” God from the Old Testament. He is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
The Bible says, “For you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God.” The Bible also says, “For, ‘All flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers and the flower falls off, but the Word of the Lord endures forever.’ And this is the word which was preached to you” (1 Pet 1:23-24).
If this holds true, that God is available and God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow, why is there so much suffering in the world? Why do I have to go through so much heartache? Why am I in so much pain? Why? Why can’t I get a break through? Does God even care? God’s Word says that God cares for us (1Pet 5:7).
The Bible also says, “Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not, knoweth not God; for God is love.” We may get angry with God sometimes because things are not going the way we would like, but God still loves us. He still delights in us. He keeps us as the apple of His eye (Deut 32:10). But, we also have a responsibility in this.
In Psalm 17:8-9, David said to God, “Keep me as the apple of Your eye, hide me under the shadow of Your wings, from the wicked who assail me, from my mortal enemies who surround me.”
Proverbs 7:2 reads: “Keep my commands, and live; and guard my teachings as the apple of your eye.” So we are to love God’s Words and His Law as the apple of our eye.
This means that we must tuck God’s commandments safely in our hearts and minds. Not only must we keep them so that we can live but we must keep them as if we cannot live without them.
—To be Continued
Heavenly Father:
How excellent is Your name in all the earth. For You are a faithful God. Father, help me to be faithful in my walk with You. In the name of Jesus, I pray. Amen.
© 2010 Gertie Loretta Hurley
Excerpted from the sermon, “The Available God: The Same Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow,” preached by Rev. Dr. Gertie Lorettta Hurley on Sunday, April 25, 2004, at Brown Memorial A.M.E. Church, 130 14th St., N.E., Washington, D.C. 20002, Rev. Dr. Henry Y. White, Pastor.
