God Never Changes
- In Genesis 35, God reaffirms to Jacob the very same promises He made to Abraham and Isaac.
- The names and circumstances have changed, generations have passed, and Jacob's life is anything but predictable... but God has not changed. He still speaks! His character remains constant! His promises are as dependable as ever!
- The writer of Hebrews declares, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, and forever.” —Hebrews 13:8
- What God promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, He faithfully carried forward. That same unchanging faithfulness is the foundation of our hope in Christ.
- The New Testament assures us that "there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:1,) that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ (Romans 8:38-39,) and that the One who began a good work in us will bring it to completion (Philippians 1:6.)
- Our circumstances may change, our feelings may fluctuate, and our lives may take turns we never anticipated, but God's character does not shift with the weather of our lives.
- The God who made the promise is still the God who keeps the promise.
Everybody Hurts
- Don't confuse your own failure, or a hard season of life, with a broken relationship with a God who never changes.
Genesis 35 makes perfectly clear that you can belong to God and still experience periods of extreme sorrow and difficulty. - Jacob moves from God's renewed covenant straight into the death of His beloved wife and father simultaneously with the gross betrayal of his firstborn son.
- Jacob is in deep grief and his family is falling apart. It is at these moments we must remember who God says we are!
Your failure does not make you "a failure." Your grief does not become your identity. Your tragedy does not get to write the rest of your story. - Live in the name God has given you, not the names your worst moments try to give you.
- Life and circumstance do not have the final words over our lives. Jesus does, and He calls you “Beloved.”
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