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Knowing That Our Triune God Feels Yet Doesn’t Change

When considering that God, in all three persons, doesn’t change, the Bible shares two tremendous facts:

  • He feels infinitely more than we can understand: He can weep overflowing tears without ceasing (Jer 14:17) as he shares in the affliction of his people (Isaiah 63:9)
  • His feelings and nature are not lessened or enhanced by any circumstance (1 Samuel 15:29) because he does not change (Malachi 3:6) or shift (James 1:17)

What a mystery! On the one hand, He is never emotionally out of control (Num 23:19); on the other, He can empathize with our weaknesses (Heb 4:15). He can rejoice with those who rejoice, as we are told to do (Rom 12:15); on the other hand, he is never swept away by any external situation.

Like a fireman who can enter the burning building when your children are still inside, God can infinitely feel your sorrow and simultaneously not be moved to change his rescue plans, no matter the situation. This fact shows that God, in his nature, is truly our unshifting anchor (Psa 18:2).

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Knowing that Our Triune God Doesn’t Change

Think about last year. You may have had ups, downs, failures, successes, and learnings. Some things made you stronger. Some things made you weaker. Today, you’re not the same person you were in the beginning of last year. Much less twenty years ago. Why? Because we grow. We learn. We change.

God does not change.

Read Psalm 102. It is filled with a slice of our lives. Withering hearts, distressed groaning, sleepless nights, days filled with fear, horrendous news of war and shaking earth: but all of these things will pass away. “But you remain the same, and your years will never end.”

Read Hebrews 13: 8: Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

What comfort: God, in all three persons, is always the same. He doesn’t change who he is. He does not change his plans. He does not change his promises.  He doesn’t learn something that He doesn’t know. Nothing surprises him. He’s completely and forever perfect. He is the anchor of our soul! (Heb 6:19)

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Meditations

Knowing that Our Triune God is Eternal

When we think about God and His creation, we sometimes let our ideas become as wild as something from a space movie. But the Bible gives us the real story. God tells us:

  • That He lives forever (Isaiah 57:15)
  • That He exists from everlasting to everlasting (Psalm 93:2)

When we see God at work in the Bible we see that:

  • God was there at the start (Genesis 1:1) and will be there at the end (Revelation 22:13)

And when He speaks of Himself in all three persons he says:

  • God was here before everything and will last through everything  (Psalm 90:2)
  • The Son was here before everything and keeps everything going (Col 1:17)
  • The Holy Spirit was there at the start (Genesis 1:2) and always knows what God is thinking  (1 Cor 2:11)

We should not mistake what 2 Peter 3:8 says—that one day is like a thousand years to God—to mean that one ‘God day’ is actually a thousand years for us. What Peter means is that God, who knows everything, is all-wise, all-powerful, and lives forever, doesn’t keep our agenda! This is great news! It means God, who created everything, isn’t far away. He’s here with us now, will be there waiting for us at the end, and promises to be with us always.

Savior, our only joy be though, as Thou our crown shalt be; Be Thou, O Lord, our glory now, and through eternity!

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Meditations

Knowing that Our Triune God Created Everything

God, in all three persons, created everything. Anything that exists owes existence to God.

  • The Lord alone made all things (Isaiah 44:24)
  • There is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things (1 Cor 8:6)
  • All the hosts of heaven made by the word and by the breath [Spirit] of His mouth. (Psalm 33:6)

These passages show us that God, in all three persons, made physical stuff AND spiritual beings.

We also know that God didn’t have to do this. He wasn’t forced by necessity or something lacking in the Godhead. He freely decided to do this and shared his nature through that creation.

  • Man and Woman are a picture of God (Gen 1:26-27)
  • The stars declare God’s glory (Psalm 19:1-6)
  • Creation reveals God’s invisible attributes of eternal power and divinity (Rom 1:20)

Go outside on a clear dark night. Or Stand on a high mountain and look out. Or look down while your plane is taking off. Revel in the wonder of God’s creation!

Holy, holy, holy: Lord God Almighty! All Thy works shall praise Thy name in earth and sky and sea. Holy, holy, holy: Merciful and mighty! God in three persons, blessed Trinity

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Meditations

Knowing that God, In All Three Persons, Is Sovereign

Some people think that because God doesn’t need anything, because he is very smart, very good, very kind, and very strong that he gets to be sovereign, or in charge. But God isn’t in charge because of those things. God is in charge because He is God! God has the right to freely do whatever He wants over what He made.

  • Whatever the LORD pleases to do, he does it! (Psalm 135:6)

This absolute right belongs to all three persons of the one triune Godhead.

  • Our God in the heavens does whatever he wants. (Psalm 115:3)
  • The Lamb of God is lord of lords and kings of kings (Rev. 17:14 )
  • The Spirit sovereignly decides the gifts for individuals (1 Cor. 12:11)

The fact that God, in all three persons, is all good, all loving, all knowing, all powerful, and all wise, just means that he is always able to perfectly act on his rights: nothing can stop him.

  • God has planned it, so it will be: who can turn his hand back? No one. (Isa. 14:24–27)
  • God causes all things to work together for good for those who love (Rom. 8:28)

This is fantastic news. God never loses control. God, in all three persons, is truly in charge, even when things are bad and horribly sad. If God is behind a ministry or giftedness, He is able to make that ministry fruitful in his own way! As the hymn in Christ Alone says:

No guilt in life, no fear in death: this is the power of Christ in me 

From life’s first cry to final breath, Jesus commands my destiny 

No power of hell, no scheme of man can ever pluck me from His hand !

Till He returns or calls me home, here in the power of Christ I’ll stand.

In Christ Alone