Consistently Constant

 "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever." Hebrews 13:8. If you sit back and reflect on it for a moment there really isn't much in life that we can label consistent. The labor market fluctuates and the pay for the jobs that are available scale from mediocre to unreal. The cost of living keeps going up with utilities, groceries, and gas prices giving the appearance of a rocket ship blasting off to outer space. Relationships ebb and flow with the divorce rate ever inching up, while the measure of right and wrong becomes increasingly blurred in our society. If anything could be said to be consistent in our world today, it would have to be that inconsistency is the only constant we have. 

 

Where consistency provides comfort and peace, inconsistency creates uncertainty and anxiety as we strive to map out our days. For those who are "planners" nothing rocks the boat more than unexpected events impacting our best mapped out plans. On the other hand, those that roll with the flow as life presents itself, may find it challenging to see the bigger picture of finding God's purpose for their lives in an inconsistent world. Not having a vision and a plan to reach that vision has the potential to keep you sitting in a spot and never moving forward. 

Today's verse reminds us that in a world filled with inconsistency, there is one thing that remains constantly consistent, Jesus Christ. Regardless of the rising waves of uncertainty that rock our tiny boat when a storm hits, we can rest assured that the same God who spoke this world into existence, is the same God who will steady our course and see us through the storms of life. Coupled with that knowledge we can also find comfort and peace knowing that His promises are true forevermore. If you are weary, downtrodden, or oppressed know that God is with you, He always has been, and He will be each day of your life's journey. 

 

When I think about the image that the author of the Book of Hebrews wanted us to retain from the declaration that Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever it is one of consistency. No doubts, no uncertainty, but 100% faith that God is with us always and if He is with us who could ever be against us that we should ever feel alone? (Romans 8:31). The visual image that comes to my mind is that of the rising and setting sun. If there is one thing that we could say is a constant, it would have to be the sun. We rise each day at sunrise, we set our calendars based on the earth's position in relationship to our planet, and we go about each day working from sun up to sundown. Even when storms take over the sky and we can't see the sun, we have the comfort and assurance of knowing that behind the storm clouds the sun is prepared to shine through. God's "Son"shine is always with us, yesterday, today, and forever! 

Coach Carter