Change. Some people embrace it, some people detest it, but it is a fact of life! The reality is that change can be challenging, but it is necessary for living creatures to grow and adapt to changes within themselves and in their environments. Babies do not stay babies!
As nurses, we must be keenly aware of how people grow and change, and we observe them over time to determine if their growth and development is progressing according to established norms. And if their growth and development is lagging, we intervene to look for the cause and establish a plan of care to alleviate the problem or help the person adapt.
Change is especially important and necessary for people who follow Jesus so that we can grow to be more and more like him. God has ordained for his creation and his creatures to change, but no change is necessary in God. According to A.W. Tozer, if God were to change, he would need to change in three ways:
- from better to worse
- from worse to better
- from one kind of being to another.
But God is immutable. He is completely, eternally holy and perfect. Tozer writes, “He cannot go from better to worse. You cannot think of God being any less holy than he is now, any less righteous than he is now. God must remain infinitely holy, fixed, forever unchanging in holiness. He cannot go from worse to better for the simple reason that God, being absolutely holy, cannot go beyond himself.”
God reveals to us in Malachi 3:6, “I the Lord do not change.” In James 1:17 we read, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.”
Thankfully, God does not change, but he allows us and helps us to grow in our knowledge and love for him -- to be totally transformed. Do you know people who became radically different when they trusted in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord? John Newton, the author of “Amazing Grace,” repented and turned away from being a slave trader. The apostle Paul turned away from persecuting followers of Jesus to become one of God’s greatest Christian leaders.
We can know the same Jesus, the One who transformed Paul and John Newton, gave sight to the blind, healed the lame, and calmed the sea. As we follow Jesus, we are assured that he is always the same, always with us.
“Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matt. 28:18-20).
In spite of the constant change in and around us, God is always with us and always the same, and wants us to live in a relationship with him for eternity.
–by Jane Hall, NCF National Director All quotes from: A.W. Tozer, The Attributes of God, Volume 2 This is the fifteenth post in a series by NCF Director Jane Hall on God’s attributes. She is inspired by the writings of A.W. Tozer in The Attributes of God, Volume 2
Add new comment