We Need A Miracle

When I was a senior in high school, my teacher prepared us to participate in a debate. In his collegiate days, he was on a debate team from the University of Redlands that won a competition against the USAF Academy on the topic, “How to lie with statistics.” In the face of facts and figures, we all face the difficulty of determining what we can believe, and ultimately, who can you trust? Who can we trust, if everyone has their own agenda? For your consideration, I would propose, “It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man” (Psalm 118:8 KJV).

Why should we trust God?

The concept of God immediately summons the idea of God always existing, otherwise we would faultily reason, as we do about anyone like ourselves, Where did God come from? If no one created God, then God always existed. If He began at any point in time, then He could not be God. We should trust God, because God is not a created being, a human like us. He does not change. God is eternal. He does not promise and fail to fulfill. He is not a liar. God can be trusted.

“God is not human, that He should lie, not a human being, that He should change His mind. Does He speak and then not act? Does He promise and not fulfill?” (Numbers 23:19 NIV).

If someone changed their mind, and we benefitted, we would not feel slighted. If I offended someone who had the power to do me harm, I would not be offended, if they changed their mind about harming me, if I repented. But, if I had been promised something good, if the promise was subsequently withdrawn, I would view that negatively. God forgives me, when I repent. For that, I am grateful. When He makes me a promise, and keeps it, I appreciate that He doesn’t change His mind like humans are prone to do.

“He who is the Glory of Israel does not lie or change His mind; for He is not a human being, that He should change His mind” (1Samuel 15:29 NIV).

I’ve noticed how easy it is to find fault with anything. To make something faulty is to make myself bigger than whatever I find faulty. If God’s appointed times can be found faulty, then we cannot trust them. We cannot trust God. But, if we have never seen God make a promise He has not kept, how can we not trust God? We are told about Christ’s “coming and the end of the age” (Matthew 24:3 NIV) that the “day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father” (24:36 NIV). How can this be? The God who can be trusted has hidden this from our eyes. But, their nearness and certainty of fulfillment can be trusted because God can be trusted.

“For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay” (Habakkuk 2:3 NIV).

You’ve just read something I’ve written, but you will soon forget what I wrote. Why? Because it is only my words. But, when God says something, it is eternal. Jesus identified Himself as the Eternal Word. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1 NIV). His words will not pass away, yet heaven and earth will pass away. The universe will pass away, but never His Word. God can be trusted, or He is not God. No one else can make that guarantee and back it up!

“Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away” (Luke 21:33 NIV).

Irrevocable is the concept of fixed or unchanging. When God gives or beckons, it is irreversible. No one can step in and alter God’s intentions or actions. We can discover God’s desires and align ourselves with them. Whenever anyone or anything tempts us to discard God’s purposes or plans, saying God will do what He intends to do regardless of us, then justify God, give Him the glory, and become His co-worker. “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work” (John 5:17 KJV). God can be trusted because He never goes back on His Word or takes back His gifts.

“God’s gifts and His call are irrevocable” (Romans 11:29 NIV).

Eternal life, the elixir of life, what a promise! Fabulous quests have entertained our imaginations, but their source has always been the Eternal God who does not lie. Isaiah prophesied, “He said, Surely they are My people, children that will not lie: so He was their Saviour” (Isaiah 63:8 KJV). If God has so worked in our heart that we have repented of our past perfidy (deliberate breach of trust), then we are “children that will not lie.” However, if God has not worked in our heart to trust Him, we — not He — are the liar.

“In the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time” (Titus 1:2 NIV).

Make no mistake, just as good descends from above, shifting shadows are cast here below, if that “true Light that gives light to everyone” (John 1:9 NIV) has not taken up residence in our heart. But, light casts out the darkness of our heart, when we put our confidence in Him. Who can we trust? We can trust the Father of the Heavenly Lights, who gave His One and Only Son, “that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16 NIV). God can be trusted because why wouldn’t we trust someone who loved us enough to give up His own Son for us? “He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all — how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:32 NIV).

“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows” (James 1:17 NIV).

God alone can be safely trusted.