September 26 – Enduring Plans (Philippians 1:6)

“Everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that men will revere him.” (Ecclesiastes 3:14)

IN WORD:
We live in an age of disposables. We have disposable containers, disposable diapers, disposable cameras, even disposable income. Whenever someone laments that “they don’t make things like they used to,” they are invariably critiquing the quality of a product. Though the things craftsmen used to make didn’t last forever, the things factories make now last even less time. We are a plastic generation with a plastic lifestyle. Everything we don’t use immediately goes in the trash.
That may make for efficient consumerism (although one might argue just the opposite), but it doesn’t make for meaningful spirituality. Even the work of God’s hands, our world, is on a timetable. But God’s real work, the salvation of eternal souls, is permanent. His character is eternal and constant, His plan is eternal and constant, and His people are, through Jesus, eternal and constant. There is nothing disposal about the Christian life. When God called us, He had planned it from the foundation of the world and called us with “forever” promises. Nothing can take away from that, and nothing can add to it. God’s work is complete in every sense.
Why does God craft such immutable works? “So that men will revere him.” The shifting sands of time and culture have made us suspicious of everything. We are not impressed with temporary products. The infinite, on the other hand, blows us away.

IN DEED:
This verse applies to all of God’s works, but today, consider its application to your life. Do you wonder if God will change His mind about you? That perhaps you’ve overstepped His mercy? That maybe He won’t complete what He’s started in your life? Trust Him. The work that he does — including you — will endure forever. He promised it so you would revere Him.

“Change and decay in all around I see; O Thou, who changest not, abide with me.” -Henry Francis Lyte-