Sunday, November 5, 2017

God's Faithfulness

Numbers 23: 19

God is not a man, so He does not lie. He is not human, so He does not change His mind. Has He ever spoken and failed to act? Has He ever promised and not carried it through?

God is Truth, He will never lie or be deceived. We are human, we are vulnerable to being deceived, and repeating that lie to others. We are subject to realizing our pronouncements may not be the best, and change our minds. 

God has all knowledge of everything, as He is the One Who made it all according to His design. He has already planned out how the progress of Time will continue to proceed, as He thought it up and put it into place. He knows how He has determined everything will come about, from the beginning to the end. He stands outside our Time, and sees it all as now. He can reach in at whatever point He desires to show us His Power and Authority over all Nature, as Jesus broke into our realm as one of us, and performed miracles to show us Who He is. 

God can even manipulate Time, as when He answered Hezekiah's prayer, and caused time to go backward by ten degrees on the Sundial of Ahaz (Isaiah 38:7-8), and when Joshua asked God for more time to defeat the Amorites, and God caused the sun to stand still for "about a full day" (Joshua 10:12-14). 

God's faithfulness is absolute--He would never say He would do anything that He doesn't intend to do. He knows what the future holds for us, because He sees it the same as He sees the past. We are encapsulated in Time, He stands outside it. We can see into the past as other humans have accurately recorded it, and we can see what is going on today. We can only surmise what we think might happen in the future, but we cannot know. 

But we can trust God's knowledge, and what He says He will do. He has given His prophets to tell His people what to expect in the future, and thousands of prophesies have already been fulfilled in the time that has transpired since each prophesy was given. Like Daniel, reading Jeremiah, found that Israel would be in Babylon for 70 years (25:11), and 70 years was fast approaching in his time (see Daniel 9:1-3). And, just as He had said, the Nation was sent back to Jerusalem after being in Babylon for 70 years (see Ezra and Nehemiah, one book when written). 

So we can fully trust God to do exactly what He says He will do. Literally. Practically. In our own lives, families, societies, nations, and in our World. And in this beautiful Earth that will undergo violent "birth pangs" as the Kingdom of God approaches our shores. 

O my Father, I thank You and I praise You for Your faithfulness to Your Word, Your truthfulness and loyalty to Your own Righteousness. 

I thank You and I praise You for Your faithfulness to me, in demonstrating in my life the changes You are making in me, in transforming the dust and clay of my vessel, molecule by molecule, into the crystal and diamond to show forth Your own Glory through me. 

Thank You for Your promise, that, He Who began a good work in [me] will carry it on to completion until the Day of Christ Jesus (Philippians 1:6), You will continue to work in me and on me until You have perfected me on that glorious Day when my Lord and King Christ Jesus returns. 

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!