Give Thanks for an Unchanging God – November 25, 2021

“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.”
Revelation 1:8

Give Thanks for an Unchanging God

Today is Thanksgiving Day in the United States. If you are reading or listening in the morning, what are your plans for the day? If it is near the end of the day, what has your day been like?

Does the pandemic still leave you feeling isolated and alone? Do you long for how things used to be? Maybe there are other factors that leave you lamenting the things that have changed. A loved one has died. You or someone you love is sick. New financial strains overshadow your celebration if you can even call it that.

Thanksgiving or not, our world is constantly changing. And that can make it hard to be thankful.

For everything that changes, one thing always stays the same. And that is our God. In our Bible verse for today, God says, “I am the Alpha and the Omega.” Alpha and omega are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. In English, we might say, “I am the A and the Z.” What he means is that he is the same from beginning to end. God never changes. He always was, is now, and always will be the same God.

That means he doesn’t change his standard of right and wrong. The sins that offended him in the past still offend him today and always will.

But it also means that his mercy and love don’t change. When the first people sinned against him, God promised them a Savior to forgive that sin and free them from the curse of death. God kept that promise of mercy and love. And that promise of mercy hasn’t changed. All who cling to Jesus in faith receive the free gift of God’s forgiveness. God won’t change his plan. He won’t add strings or conditions. Through Jesus, God’s Son, he counts us as his children and pours out his love on us each day as our perfect, loving Father.

So we give thanks today for a God who doesn’t change, who always loves, always provides, always forgives. And we look forward to the day we will feast with him in an eternal celebration of thanksgiving!

Prayer:
Loving God, I give thanks today that you never change. Amen.