It was noon on Monday when that new term feeling faded away.
That’s right – a mere three hours after I bounded into the office, full of enthusiasm about a new end-of-summer, early autumn season, I was over it.
To be fair, the last week had been pretty busy, as I was part of the team behind the newly launched Evangelical Alliance website. (If you haven’t checked it out yet, you definitely should; it’s really good, in my completely unbiased opinion.) So, I wasn’t feeling as fresh as I might have been, but even in the midst of being busy, a new season or term can bring inspiration, new starts, creative thinking and new friends.
September marks the beginning of a new season – schools and parliament are back, and so are Bake Off and Strictly. There are new opportunities and change, which has got me thinking… we experience a lot of change, don’t we? We seize new opportunities that we think will be brilliant, we set new targets that we think will solve all our problems, we resolve to change habits. And all of these endeavours are good, but also exhausting.
I was reminded this week that God is unchanging. Although our seasons change, He stays the same, yesterday, today and forever. This is encouraging, because if you’ve made a change recently and have been disappointed, God who loved you before you set those new targets or took up a new opportunity loves you today and forever. Similarly, if you’ve made a change, the success of which has surpassed your wildest dreams, the God who loves you now your life has entered this new and wonderful phase, loved you exactly the same before ​‘life went so right’.
Likewise, if you’re in a season of no change, and the lack of change is causing you to stare into the wilderness of nothing, the God who loved you when life was a wonderful whirlwind loves you the same today and will love you the same forever.
"I was reminded this week that God is unchanging. Although our seasons change, He stays the same, yesterday, today and forever."
And we know that God isn’t just love. God is just, holy and righteous. God is full of mercy, full of grace. God is the source of all wisdom. So, He doesn’t just love you yesterday, today and forever, He offers you His justice, His holiness, His righteousness. He offers you His mercy, His grace and His wisdom. The same as He always has.
In the shifting sands and shadows of this world, our God is the same; He never changes. He calls us to call on His name in our despair, to rejoice in His love, to share the story of His grace, regardless of where we’re at – good or bad.
I am so grateful that my God is the same God at noon on the first day of a new season as He was at 9:00am. I am so grateful that He will be the same in all the joys and challenges of the new season. I don’t enter that season alone; I enter it alongside the steadfast, unchanging favour of the God who gave His son for me, who bore all my mess and called me into new life.
Whether the seasons test you or thrill you, God is the same, so put your trust in Him.
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.
Psalm 102:25 – 27
