God has Resolved to be God–Malachi 3:6

2013 is somewhat of a milestone year for the Biddinger crew.

Brett and I will be married 25 years this September.

 Britt will turn 20 in April

and

we will celebrate the 20 year anniversary of the accident that rendered Brett a quadriplegic in June.

Yep, you read that right.  I chose the word celebrate when referring to what we believed, at the time, to be the worst thing that could possibly happen.    Don’t get me wrong, we didn’t start out with a spirit of celebration about the accident.  We have had and occasionally still have days of great sadness.  To be honest, we sometimes just get tired of doing the thing.  But those moments, praise God, are few and far between.

We most often embrace our lifestyle with joy and, without a doubt, the wheelchair has been the catalyst for faith lesson after faith lesson.  I’ve often heard Brett tell people that if he were offered the choice between a restored spinal cord and the faith heritage we are leaving Brittany that there simply would be no choice.   So my man and I walk through each day . . .well, I walk and he rolls (c’mon you have to have a sense of humor) . . .knowing that our God has gone to great lengths to redeem our inheritance and confident that He always does the good thing.

He always does the good thing because as we read in James, He is the Giver of all good gifts (James 1:17).  It is who He introduced Himself as in the opening Book of Genesis when He gave His good creation to Adam and Eve to steward.  It is who He was when He gifted us with Jesus and it is who He will be when He presents the beauty of the New Heaven and the New Earth to His children. And yes, personal experience confirms for me, it is who He is today.  You see ladies, your God does not change.

I believe that all of Scripture hangs on this one immutable fact:  God does not change.  He is and will remain the God who He announces and shows Himself to be:  always holy, always love, always compassionate, always trustworthy, always just, and always faithful.  If we could but wrap our minds around the unchanging nature of God, taking it from head knowledge to heart assurance, we would not worry or be anxious about . . . well, about anything.  We would have certainty that His intentions for us are good and we would have no doubt that what God sets about to do, He accomplishes.  Who knows, if we were to grab hold of that simple truth, we might even stop trying to be the god of our own lives. Believe me, as one who has tried to fill the position time and time again; we don’t have what it takes to do the job.

Yes , my God is faithful.  He is faithful to Himself.  What He has declared Himself to be is what He always has been and what He is today.  The same God that breathed life into Adam is at work breathing His Spirit into those who believe in His Son today (Genesis 2:7, Romans 5:5) .  The Almighty One who claimed the Israelites as His own and announced He would form them into a holy nation and kingdom of priests has claimed the same for His children in the present age.(Exodus 19:6; 1 Peter 2:9).   And the same God who dressed Adam in sacrifice has clothed those who believe from head-to-toe in Jesus Christ (Genesis 3:21, Galatians 3:27) .  Beloved, be secure.  Know to the marrow of your bones.  Trust beyond what your eyes see.  Your God will not change.

I wonder if we might have difficulty fully rejoicing in that statement or comprehending the gravity of it because it is simply beyond our human experience.  Unfortunately, we live in a world scattered with broken promises and filled with less than perfect character. Might it be that our experiences with those on planet earth have left us with preconceived notions of undependability and distrust that we hang around God’s neck?

Scripture seems to bear out that our penchant to compare what we know and have experienced to that which we do not fully understand does not surprise God.  In fact, He drew the comparison Himself and flat out says that He is not a man that He should lie nor a son of man that He should change His mind (Numbers 23:19).  The same verse tells us that God does not say He is going to do something and fail to follow through or make promises that He doesn’t keep.  It simply is not His supernatural style.  He has resolved to be faithful.  Faithful to Himself.  He has been God, He is God, and He will continue to be God.

I, the LORD, do not change.         Malachi 3:6

Try and set your preconceived notions and very human experiences aside for a moment and drink in exactly what that verse is saying.  The prophet Malachi was inspired to use the proper name of God (YHWH), which encompasses His wholeness and perfection, to highlight the absolutely complete and unchanging nature of God.  Barnes’ Notes on the Bible makes the following observation on this passage:

The proper name of God, “He who is” involves His unchangeableness.  For change implies imperfection; it changes to that which is either more perfect or less perfect:  to somewhat which that being, who changes, is not or has not.  But God has everything in Himself perfectly. (Emphasis added)

God cannot be dissuaded from being God.  His perfect character and nature require no alteration.  His perfection guarantees that who He is, is who He will remain.  He is perfect love and He is perfectly holy. And Beloved, He has chosen to love the very unholy and very imperfect — you and me.

It is warm and fuzzy to think that God’s faithfulness is simply to us, but the truth is, He is faithful to us because He is first faithful to Himself.   Read over that again and try to wrap your mind around the fact that God’s faithfulness has nothing to do with you.  One of the reasons that’s so hard is because, if we’re honest, we want everything to have something to do with us.

So why does God love you?  Because of your righteous and outstanding nature?  No, God loves you because He said He would (Romans 5:8).  Why did He send His Son to take your punishment and offer you a redeemed life?  Because you deserved it?  Again no.  He did it because He said He would (Genesis 15:17). And why has God blessed you with the indwelling Holy Spirit so that you might desire Him?  Again, God, in His full perfection and unchanging nature, said He would and so He does (John 14:26). And these things will not change because He will not change.

Praise His Name, He is immovably, unshakably, faithful to Himself which means that neither our lack of faith nor our imperfect acts have the power to change the Almighty.  That’s not my opinion, that’s His declaration:

if we are faithless, he will remain faithful,

for he cannot disown himself.

2 Timothy 2:13

Girlfriend, do you see the heart of your perfect God in all this?  None of your shortcomings, none of your “less than moments”, and not even your faithlessness can change the heart of God.  Author Jen Smidt takes all my ramblings and ties them together with a giant, red, succinct bow:

“Embracing God’s faithfulness to himself frees us from the devastating effects of thinking we have anything to do with the way he sees us.  God sees his children through the atoning blood of his Son, covering us for every act of treason and rebellion we have committed.  He isn’t faithful to us because of anything we have done well or poorly. . . .”

Sister, your God loves you so and He will not change His mind concerning you.  Your imperfections do not scare Him.  In fact, He longs to lavish you with His love (1 John 3:1).  He has promised to work all things out for your good and as we read in Numbers, and I have testified, He is always true to His Word.  I have no doubt, regardless of my circumstance or of what my limited vision perceives, that He is the Giver of all good gifts and, may I be so bold as to say, He’s wild about me.  And you know what?  He’s wild about you too.  He has summoned you by name and you are His (Isaiah 43:1).  Resolve to fix your eyes on the One who has His heart firmly fixed on you and you can be certain that He will show you His Glory.

Tags: faith heritage, resolutions, spirituality