The old Hymn, “Great is They Faithfulness” begins, “Great is Thy faithfulness, oh God my Father;
There is no shadow of turning with Thee;
Thou changest not, 
Thy compassions, they fail not;
As Thou hast been, Thou forever wilt be.”
In Hebrews we read, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. (Heb 13:8)
God may be the same, but our lives are full of change. We need to learn to find and experience God in new circumstances. Certainly Joseph’s encounters with God were different when he received his dream, when he was in prison and then when he was ruling Egypt. Yet God was the same. The Apostle Peter must have had a very different experience of Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration, stepping out of the boat in a storm and finding the forgiveness of Christ after Jesus’ resurrection.
God does not change. Yet you and I encounter changing circumstances that make relating to God difficult if not impossible. The spiritual disciplines of the reading of scripture and participating in worship provide us with spiritual capital that helps us retain stability. Rather than waiting for a crisis to begin looking for God, if we maintain the practices that allow God to speak on a regular basis, we gain a familiarity with His voice and learn to hear Him. We learn about His character and learn to trust him. In new circumstances that relationship sustains us as we encounter new situations in life until we learn to find the God who never changes again.
The rest of “Great is Thy Faithfulness” goes on to talk about how every day there is something new to experience of God’s goodness. Building the regular habits of the spiritual life allow you and me to find that God who never changes in the midst of lives being lived in the midst of a topsy-turvy world. I don’t know about you, but as life changes, I look forward to being able to draw on “Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow, Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside!”
May God bless you in the coming week!
{This column originally appeared in the Naples Daily News on February 16, 2013}
Russ Ritchel 