The Same God

 I don't know what you are facing in life. I am unaware of all your challenges, sorrows and private battles. Maybe you have had better days, better weeks, better months, and better years. 

Reflection can be a wonderful tool. While praying this morning, I reflected on times when I felt closer to God, seasons when my prayers seemed more fruitful, Sundays when I felt more of God's hand on me when preaching, times when His provision was more abundant, the trials less, and days when I felt better. Then it dawned on me. He is still the same God. 

He is the same God who spoke creation into existence. No big fuss. No huge construction project. Just a spoken word. He is the God who gave his servants Abram and Sarai a miracle baby boy in fulfillment of a promise. He is the same God who called Moses from a burning bush. The same God who sent 10 devastating plagues over Egypt because He willed His people be free from bondage after four centuries. He is the same God who split the Red Sea so Israel could walk across on dry land. The same God who provided water to drink and manna to eat in the desert. He is the same God who spoke to Moses and passed His glory by while He hid Moses in the cleft of the rock. He is the same God who stopped up the waters of the Jordan River at flood stage so His people could step into the promise land. He is the same God who drove out pagan inhabitants. He is the same God who spoke through prophets like Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Joel, Amos, Hosea, Malachi and many more. He is the same God that conceived the Messiah in a teenaged virgin and brought forth His Son through her to planet Earth. He is the same God who worked through His Son to heal, to deliver demon possessed people, and to provide for thousands will little more than table scraps. He is the same God who brought Jesus from the dead and soon after sent the promise of the Holy Spirit. He is the same God who transformed cowards into courageous warriors at Pentecost. He is the same God who worked to establish His church. He is the same God who saved souls in the book of Acts. He is the same God who heard and answered prayers. He is the same God who has been doing that ever since. He is the same God working around the world everyday. He is the same God redeeming people. He is the same God lifting burdens, offering comfort in sorrows, inspiring visions to be pursued, and the same God who will soon rapture His church and return putting the devil in his fiery prison forever. 

He has not changed one itoa. He is the same today as in the past. How easily we forget that in the midst of trials and sorrows. We  pray but do we pray with the confidence that He is the same God. He can still do anything He chooses. No purpose of His can be thwarted. Nobody can stop Him. He is omnipotent. How easy to go through the motions of offering religious words to God and Jesus we do not believe. We are so used to our prayers not being answered that we wish more than we believe. 

Today I am challenging all of us to pray with belief. To pray with fervency. To pray with the mentality that we are talking to the same God who has worked through history. When it pleases Him the most, when it gives Him to optimum amount of glory, when nobody can take credit for His work, He will answer. He is still the same God.