I Am

II. “I AM” Means “I Do Not Change”

Secondly, when God says “I AM,” it means “I do not change.” On my sixteenth birthday my family and I happened to be on vacation at Yellowstone National Park. Some of you have probably been there. Probably one of the biggest attractions at Yellowstone is a geyser called Old Faithful. Now, when you’ve heard of Old Faithful you’ve probably heard things like it erupts every hour on the hour. You’ve probably even heard that it is so predictable that you can set your watch by it. I mean, after all, that’s why they call it Old Faithful in the first place, isn’t it? Well, let me tell you what’s actually true about Old Faithful. The average time between eruptions is actually closer to 94 minutes. Each eruption lasts somewhere between 1 ½ and 5 minutes. But all of that actually varies from day to day and from year to year. So much for being Old Faithful, huh? If you can’t count on that trusty old geyser in Yellowstone, what can you count on?

Someone once remarked that there is nothing permanent except change. Today we live in a constantly changing society. Towns are changing. Prices are changing. Fears are changing. War is changing. Tastes and fads are changing. Moods are always changing. Churches are changing. Things change. People change. Relationships change. Maybe you’ve heard about the older couple that was sitting at a red light one day. The wife looked over at the next car and saw a young couple, obviously very deeply in love, who were sitting very close. You know, the girl was slid way over next to her boyfriend. The lady looked at her husband and said, “I remember the days when we used to sit that close to each other.” Her husband just kind of grunted and said, “Well, I didn’t move.”

Things change. Some changes are small, some are not so small. Some changes are for the better, some are not. Some changes come because we choose to be different, some come whether we want them to or not. A lot of people don’t really like change. But change happens. It’s just a part of life. We live in a changing world. It seems like the moment we get used to something, before we know it, it’s different. And sometimes it can be frustrating. It can be stressful to be constantly dealing with changes.

That’s why it is so good to know that while so many things around us, and maybe even we ourselves, are changing so much, we are serving a God who never changes. We’re serving a God who says in Mal. 3:6, “I am the Lord, I change not.” We are serving a God who the writer of Hebrews tells us is “the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.” We are serving a God in whom James said “there is no variation or shadow of turning.”

There is something in this world besides change that is permanent. There is something that we can take to the bank. There is something/Someone that we can count on. That Someone is the unchanging God of the Bible. The same God who existed before time began is the God who lives in our hearts today. The same God who had the power to speak the worlds into existence has the power to hold them in place today. The same God who had the authority to write the Commandments has the authority to direct nations today. The same God who had the love to send His only Son to die in your place has the same compassion for you today. The God of the past is the God of today. He has not changed. He has not lost his power. His wisdom has not diminished. His love has not burned out. He was, and is, and always will be the same.