The new year is here and seems to be racing by as we look toward February already. Maybe some of our New Year’s Resolutions are holding up, and maybe they are fading away. This is the time of year that we seek change. The whole theme of change was an important part of the recent presidential election process. But parties ran on platforms of change. Now we have a promise for change from our newly elected government. Most of us look forward to change for ourselves and for our nation. We think that change is good personally as we check the bathroom scales and our checkbooks and realize that some corrections need to be be made.

The Psalmist reminds us of the inevitability of change of the created order: "In the beginning, You laid the foundations of the earth and the heavens are the work of Your hands. They will perish, but You remain; they will all wear out like a garment. Like clothing, You will CHANGE them and they will be discarded. But You remain the same and Your years will never end. The children of Your servants will live in Your presence; their descendants will

be established before You." Psalm 102:25-28

Spiritually there are changes we all must make. Speaking to the people of Judah in Jerusalem through the prophet Jeremiah, God said: "If you really CHANGE your ways and your actions and deal with one another justly, if you do not oppress the alien, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place and if you do not follow other gods to your harm, then I will let you live in this place." Jeremiah 7:15

Jesus talked about the necessity of change when he said to His disciples: "I tell you the truth, unless you CHANGE and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of Heaven." Matthew 18:3

But God himself never changes. In the last book of the Old Testament, the prophet Malachi records these words of Almighty God: "I, the Lord, DO NOT CHANGE." Malachi 6:3

If we really want to change, then we need God’s help to do it. He has promised us the gift of the Holy Spirit to change us from within. He have His guidelines in the scripture to point us toward changes we need to make in our lives. We know that He loves us with unchanging love and that never changes.