“⁶For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed. ⁷From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts.” – Malachi 3:6-7 (ESV)

The Lord does not change. I know that sometimes I feel as though God is not with me and has abandoned me and his promises for me, especially when it comes to dealing with adversity. I seem to spend an inordinate amount of time dealing with item after item, and frankly have become angry with God for it. But why should I be angry when I know that God does not change?

I am angry at the timing of God’s actions. His actions, or what feels like inaction, are not in line with my timing and therefore I am angry that I am not getting what I want. He has not changed His love for me. He has not changed His plan for me. He has not given up on me. My wants are not of His concern. My wants are simply mine. My needs are being met and I am too blinded by my not getting what I want, that I cannot see the fact that my needs are and have been met continually by my God.

It is up to me to adjust my wants to be more in line with my needs and once again get back to the business of following the Lord and taking action on those items He would have me take action. When I am able to focus on those items He has for me, my wants will be subsided and I will be content with that which is provided by God.

“¹¹Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content.” – Philippians 4:11 (ESV)

When you find yourself angry with God for not receiving something, what is it that you are seeking to receive, want or need? Are you aware that the timing of your expectations may not be in line with God’s timing? Will you remember that God’s timing only appears to change, but the Lord indeed does not change?

“¹⁹God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?” – Numbers 23:19 (ESV)

Balaam is clear here that God is not like the rest of us. He is not man and therefore does not do things like man. God is definite in His actions.

As man I struggle with decision making. I want to make sure that everything is just so before deciding for fear of making a wrong decision. That fear creates lack of commitment and I then fail to act at all. The quote by Harvey Cox: “Not to decide is to decide”, fits right here.

God has already decided and we are to be looking for guidance toward actions that are in line with His decision. God will not waver, His decisions are already made, and we are not going to change His mind. Our good works are not going to make God do anything different that what He was going to do. Our lack of action may delay our rewards, but the rewards are already laid out for us.

When you are going into something, are you able to decide? Will you move forward or do you find yourself sitting frozen by indecision? Are you trying to, or hoping that God will change His mind?

Who am I looking to for learning and growing?

“¹⁹So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, ²⁰built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone,” – Ephesians 2:19-20 (ESV)

Who better to learn from than those that are the most knowing? My wife, being a history teacher, stresses that we learn from the past. And writer/philosopher George Santayana is credited with saying, “Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it.”

We have a choice as to where we get our knowledge. When I am looking to learn something, I take the time to get get it from those that “know” and not just someplace it happens to be written (like the internet). While where it is written is a good place to get information and/or a great place to start, the depth of true knowledge will come from those that have been tested and have experienced for a length of time. And that is where those apostles, prophets, and Jesus come in as declared by Paul.

I have to remember to look to God’s Word as my history and where all of the knowledge is found. Learn the wisdom of Solomon, the contentment of Paul, and the actions of Peter. Learn from the foundation that has been there all along.

When you are looking for knowledge, where do you turn? And, are you just finding the information and leaving it at that, or digging in to gain the knowledge? Are you learning from the foundation?

I remember early in our marriage, Lori and I spent some time looking into what we would want in our dream home. Even before we had a place to put the home, we were laying our the floor plan and the exterior elevation.

“³Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, ⁴even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love ⁵he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will,” – Ephesians 1:3-5 (ESV)

I know, my analogy of our dream home is a bit corny compared to our predestination of adoption as sons of God. And when I think of it, my thoughts are just that until I take action. God had begun action from the beginning. I would not be around for many years, however God had plans for me, and you, and everyone.

These verses help me to understand that before I was someone, I was someone to God. I was His before I was. Notice the last 7 words of verse 5 above and the finish of that sentence in verse 6 below.

“⁶to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.” – Ephesians 1:6 (ESV)

I was and am because God wanted to to be so. I am someone even before I was someone.

When you look at things, are you aware that you are someone to God? Do you realize that you were someone to God? Do you recognize that you were before even the foundation of this world?

The idea that we need a strong foundation is one that I know that I have heard time and time again in all sorts of topics, conversations, and lessons. In building, crafting, learning, and overall growth, the place to start them all is with the right foundation.

“¹¹For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” – 1 Corinthians 3:11 (ESV)

The foundation for me in this world is that which is Jesus Christ. Everything I had, have, or will have are built on my relationship with and continued reliance on Christ and nowhere else. When I start something with me or some other base, I fail, if not immediately, sometime and usually that failure is of epic proportion.

“⁶I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. ⁷So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.” – 1 Corinthians 3:6-7 (ESV)

The analogy that Paul uses here is telling. I think of the plant in the crack of the sidewalk. That plant is started in the crack and with water it grows, however the foundation to which it is planted is the sidewalk and those are used for transportation. Therefore, that sidewalk is a less than an optimal foundation for the plant to prosper. Now if we take that same plant and place it in an open field, there is space that is largely left alone and with more earth, water, and fortification to spread and continue growing at the right pace. The planter and the one supplying water both do the work they are to do, however the real difference in the growth of the plant is found in the foundation and environment provided by God.

We are called to do work in this world. We are here to plant, build, water, and cultivate. We will be most successful with those tasks when we do them with the right foundation, the foundation that is Jesus Christ.

Where are you planting, building, watering, and cultivating? Are you looking out for where you start, or just taking what comes? Your foundation is…?

“⁵And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed…²⁴Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.” – John 17:5 & 24 (ESV)

Jesus is praying to His Father, God here. He is acknowledging and declaring His existence prior to the world coming. He was with Him prior and will be with Him again. But, before He goes to again be with His Father, Jesus makes sure to declare and ask for some things for us.

“⁸For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in the truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me…¹⁴I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. ¹⁵I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one…¹⁷Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.” – John 17:8, 14-15 & 17 (ESV)

Jesus makes sure, by saying it, that God is aware of us and what we know and believe. He does not just look at God and say, “you know”. He states what it is that we know and intercedes for us. He then asks His Father to care for us here and not just remove us for protection, but to protect us as we continue to do His work based on what it is that we now know.

What a loving brother and Father we have. Jesus knows us and goes to bat for us with our Father in heaven and our Father in heaven listens and provides for that request from our brother.

Did you know that Jesus was around prior to this world even? And when He returned, did you know He declared and asked for us? Shouldn’t honoring those declarations and asks be our work here?

I believe that we are looking for protection in all the wrong places. We look to others to protect us. We are seeking help from those around us.

“¹⁵Because you have said, ‘We have made a covenant with death, and with Sheol we have an agreement, when the overwhelming whip passes through it will not come to us, for we have made lies our refuge, and in falsehood we have taken shelter’;” – Isaiah 28:15 (ESV)

We continuously look for safety in the wrong places. Being so eager to find help, we find ourselves listening to the “lies” and “falsehood” that comes from the world. I know that it is the nature of humans to speak what others want to hear. In doing so, there are things said, that seem to be a truth, because we want them to be true.

“¹⁶therefore thus says the Lord God, ‘Behold, I am the one who has laid as a foundation in Zion, a stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, of a sure foundation: “Whoever believes will not be in haste.” ¹⁷And I will make justice the line, and righteousness the plumb line; and hail will sweep away the refuge of lies, and waters will overwhelm the shelter.’” – Isaiah 28:16-17 (ESV)

There is greater to place our faith. On the foundation that God builds. We should be looking to the proven foundation of protection. God protected and delivered the Israelites, Job, and David. Why would He not deliver me?

When you are looking for protection, where is it that you are looking? Are you leaning on the truth of God, or is it the lies of the world? Where is the foundation of your protection?

Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior. We are indebted to Him for our lives.

“⁴…It is these who follow the Lamb wherever he goes. These have been redeemed from mankind as firstfruits for God and the Lamb.” – Revelation 14:4 (ESV)

I have only written the second and third sentences of verse 4, however I wanted to focus on it alone at this point.

We are and have chosen to follow Christ. We have believed in Him. We are indebted to Him.

Because we are and have chosen follow, we should be following everywhere and all time. You can see that the followers “follow the Lamb wherever he goes.”

What is your plan for followership? Where are you willing to follow Jesus? Will you follow Him everywhere He leads you?

Persecution is going to come to all of us at one time or another. Why that persecution comes and how we react is what will define us.

“²²He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. ²³When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.” – 1 Peter 2:22-23 (ESV)

Jesus did not fight back at those that persecuted Him. “He committed no sin”, and yet was treated as though He had. Jesus accepted the persecution of man, event to the point of death, and did not resist because the judgment for His actions was not of man, but of God.

“²⁰For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it, you endure, this it a gracious thing in the sight of God. ²¹For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.” – 1 Peter 2:20-21 (ESV)

Following the path of sin will result in persecution, however since I have sinned against man and God, what I get is what I have sown. When I follow the path of good in the eyes of God the consequences of my actions are best left to God and that which comes from man is of little concern and I should treat it as such.

When man judged Jesus, He allowed them to. His path and the consequences to His taking that path were and are judged by God. The resulting actions of man were of little to no concern to Jesus and therefor they were allow to take place, again even to the point of death.

When we are out in the world, who are we trying to please? Are we looking to God for feedback on our actions? Are we looking to follow the path of good so as to please God and be judged by Him?

Despair comes when we are facing difficult times. But when we prepare, that adversity seems less daunting.

“¹³Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.” – 2 Timothy 1:13 (ESV)

Paul is writing to Timothy and preparing him to launch out on his own in ministry. Timothy had been with Paul and helping him and now was the time for Timothy to take the lead. Paul, knowing Timothy, knew that there would be some anxiety about doing the work on his own and therefore wrote to encourage and remind Timothy that he already knew what was needed and how to do the job. He would just have to lean on what he knew and look back to the teachings and action that he and Paul took.

When we find ourselves in a difficult spot, how often are we looking back to contemplate actions that worked in the past? How often are we leaning on the knowledge we have and finding comfort in the peace that came from it?

For me, as a detailed personality, I tend to prepare, prepare, and over prepare for the upcoming. In doing so I find myself leaning on me to know and get things done. What if I were to look back and find the actions that God led me in to discern what actions are needed going into this new adventure? What I need has already been given, and I just need to go back and find it.

What actions are you taking when adversity comes? Are you preparing for the upcoming or just letting them happen? Are you looking back for answers to what you can do going forward?