How much has been changing in your life recently?

Change can be exciting…when we choose it.

• A new home.
• A new job.
• A new relationship.
• A new opportunity.

But change feels very different when we don’t choose it.

• Someone we love dies.
• A friendship falls apart.
• Our health changes.
• A job disappears.
• A child leaves home.
• A plan we had counted on suddenly becomes impossible.

Even good changes can leave us feeling unsettled, but difficult changes can completely rock our world. Sometimes we look back at life five or ten years ago and realize just how much has changed. The people around us have changed. Our circumstances have changed. We have changed.

Into a world where almost nothing stays the same, Hebrews gives us this simple promise:

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”

That doesn’t mean Jesus is simply predictable, as though the point were that He never does anything surprising. After all, our ways and thoughts are not God’s ways or thoughts, so we are often surprised by what God does. It means the One in whom we have placed our trust does not change.

The Jesus who loved sinners then loves sinners today.

The Jesus who welcomed the broken and forgave the guilty still welcomes and forgives.

Jesus hasn’t changed His mind about you and His promises don’t expire.

This is incredibly comforting because our faith can sometimes feel very different from one day to another. There are days when we feel close to God and days when He seems distant. There are moments when we pray with confidence and others when our prayers seem to go no farther than the ceiling. Our faith feels like the shifting sands of the beach. We need something solid.

But the security of your salvation has never depended upon the consistency of your feelings.

It depends upon Christ. He is our rock.

The same Jesus who died for you is risen for you. He claimed you in Baptism continues to call you His own. He strengthens you and leads you. The same Jesus who speaks forgiveness in His Word still gives His body and blood for you at His Table.

He has not changed.

That also gives us confidence when we face an uncertain future. We don’t know what tomorrow will bring. There may be joys we can’t yet imagine, and there may be hardships we would rather not consider.

But whatever tomorrow brings, Jesus will already be there. And He will still be Jesus.

The Savior who has been faithful throughout the past will not become someone different in the future. The promises on which you depend today will still be true then.

Yesterday.

Today.

Forever.

In a changing world, your hope rests in the One who does not change.

Let’s pray…

Lord Jesus,

So much in my life changes, and sometimes those changes leave me uncertain or afraid. Thank You that You remain the same yesterday, today, and forever.

When my feelings change and my faith feels weak, turn my attention away from myself and back to Your promises. Remind me of Your cross, Your resurrection, and the gifts through which You continue to give me Your forgiveness and life.

Whatever the future brings, keep me trusting that You will remain my faithful Savior.

Amen.

As part of your devotion time, I encourage you to also pray for at least some of the following:

• Your family
• Your local church
• Your pastor
• Some of your fellow church members
• The people on your B.L.E.S.S. list
• Your country and her leaders
• Your community

After praying for these people, you may want to finish your devotion time with the Lord’s Prayer…

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. They will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom and the power, and the glory, forever and every. Amen.