God is constant. For I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. Malachi 3:6 KJV. He does not switch back and forth from anger to love. God is love (I John 4:8), and that does not change. Man, on the other hand, changes very often, depending upon his circumstances. He is sometimes angry, hateful, jealous, lustful, arrogant, and the very opposite at times. His moods swing from one extreme to the other. Our title comes from the twelfth chapter of Isaiah. Let’s go there.
Isaiah 12:1 NKJ And in that day you will say: O Lord, I will praise You; though You were angry with me, Your anger is turned away, and You comfort me.
The Lord God changes not. Yet this verse says that God was angry and then His anger was turned away. To man the change seems to be God’s, but actually it is not God that changes but the man. God is love. However, when man hates, he is directly opposed to God’s love. God is still love but man has placed himself out of the realm of God’s love, and being in the realm of hate he feels the negatives of hate. He feels that God does not love Him and is angry with him. But God has not changed; He is still love. When man empties himself of the hate, then he can once again sense God’s love which has been there all the time.
James 4:6 NKJ God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.
God is never proud. His very nature resists that. There is a constant flow of grace to those who are truly humble. God does not look at a person and say, “He is proud, so I’m going to resist him.” He does not change back and forth resisting to giving and vice versa. The proud spirit cannot enter into the realm of God’s grace – not because God resists him so much as his pride cannot accept God’s grace. It is two different realms. We decide where we want to live: in man’s world of pride, hate, anger, etc. or in God’s world of humility and grace.
James 4:10 KJV Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He shall lift you up.
The moment you humble yourself you begin ascending into God’s world. Pride, on the other hand, goes before destruction and a fall (Proverbs 16:18). So, you see, it is not God that changes; He is constant. It is man that must change. Man’s nature is a fallen nature. God is holy and righteous and He does not change. Everything in man’s nature is opposed to God. Therefore, the emptying out process of man’s nature is of utmost importance.
Isaiah 12:1 NKJ And in that day you will say: O Lord, I will praise You; though You were angry with me, your anger is turned away, and you comfort me.
It was not that God’s anger was turned away and He was now willing to comfort. His comfort was always available. The change was in the man. When he began to praise the Lord change took place in his heart and he opened up to a comfort of the Lord that was always there. He felt God was angry with him because he had fallen from the realm of God’s love. God remains faithful. He is always love; He is always merciful. The pride of man’s heart rejects God’s loving care. I am the Lord, I change not (Malachi 3:6)!
Only you can separate yourself from the love of God. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For Thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:35-39 KJV.
Copyright © 2008 by Henry DuBose