If you read my last blog (50 bonus points for you), you learned a little bit about what I’ve been experiencing this year with experiencing so much change every month and losing some of the wander. Another thing I’ve learned is that I place a high value on consistency. With so much of my life changing, the few things that I can actually cling to are so important to me.
This month I started reading Genesis. As I’ve been reading, one of the things I’ve seen is that God likes consistency, too.
After the flood, God makes a covenant with Noah. In Genesis 8:22 (ESV), He says, “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.”
There are some things you can count on. The sun will come up tomorrow. Spring will follow winter. What you reap, you will eventually sow.
God is predictable like that. And I love Him for it!
Predictable can have some negative connotations. Instead, the Bible likes to use the word “faithfulness” to describe this attribute of God. But sometimes I like to use words that don’t sound so biblical so people who aren’t familiar with it know what I’m talking about. And I don’t really think it’s right that “predictable” is seen so negatively.
None of us like it when our cell service is unpredictable. We all appreciate that our bosses can be counted on to give us our checks at the end of the month. Predictable is not synonymous with boring. It means someone is reliable, and that is a good thing.
One of the things I’ve been learning about recently comes from Ephesians 1:22-23 (NIV), which says, “And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.”
Christ fills all things everywhere with himself. And it is so comforting to realize that I’ve found him in all of the places I’ve been in different ways.
In India, I found him on Prayer Mountain.
In Nepal, Jesus joined our family meals.
In Vietnam, he was there when I shared communion with my brothers and sisters at Christmas.
In Cambodia, Christ sat on the mat with us in the church where we lived.
In Botswana, he showed me his power to heal and to save.
In South Africa, I saw Jesus in the smiles and hugs of the residents we served.
In Swaziland, he was present as I entered data to help serve a ministry for orphaned and vulnerable children.
In Argentina, he looked like a little abuela (grandmother) who let us spend the night at her house after a long night of ministry.
And he is here in Chile, too.
Especially as I reflect on my own unfaithfulness, it’s powerful to realize that my salvation depends on his faithfulness, not my own. Second Timothy 2:13 says, “if we are faithless, he remains faithful” (ESV).
Another way I’ve discovered God’s consistency is when my thoughts wander from the Lord. I can take comfort in the truth I’ve found that Christ fills all things.
If he truly fills everything in every way then if I am looking for and finding him in my daily activities, then even if my thoughts turn to other things, he is still present in those moments.
I am so grateful for that truth. Now that I am actively aware of Christ’s presence in everything, I can look and find him everywhere. And now, no matter where I go, I can trust that he is with me. And even when my thoughts stray, as soon as I turn to look for him again, I can find him there just waiting for me to return. He’s predictable like that. And I love him for it.
