Need Thee Every Hour

Daily Gratitude Year 5-Day 92: Today, I am grateful our needs can change hourly... but our God remains the same. 

Do you ever start out on a mission to have a great day? Does that train ever derail the minute you arrive at your first morning destination? 

It happens to us all. The only thing certain in this life is change. It is why I find powerful refuge in this short promise from Malachi 3:6:

For I the Lord do not change; 
therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed. -Malachi 3:6

Please note the semicolon. PAUSE and reread that thought again."For I the Lord do not change;" You can bank on it. THEREFORE... we are not consumed. 

It is a vocabulary Monday and today's word is "therefore". How exciting... a vocab word that is familiar. But... do we think about what it means? There are 785 "therefores" in the ESV version of the Bible. Apparently, sometimes God does give us a reason and it is written down. Back to the vocabulary word. 

Therefore:  for that reason; consequently.

Really? Nothing really is going to happen today that will take us from his hand for those who love Him. For that reason, the fires of life will not consume us! 

Therefore, you... and me... are not destroyed. 

Now, sometimes, I let circumstances get in my head and speak fears into the day. My   unbridled tongue or the thoughts in my head can work directly against His purpose for the minute... this hour... this day and beyond. Oh yes, choosing my way on the highway... over His way... is sometimes the very thing that determines if the hour is one of joy or pain. 

The enemy likes to whisper that we don't matter that much to him. Satan's biggest lies often involve painting a picture of a God who is absent and does not care. Nothing could be farther from the truth. There is a powerful God on the throne of the universe who stepped down from the heavens to live like us, be with us and to pay our sin debt. 

Our sins may have paved the way as Jesus carried our sins down the Via Dolorosa... the way of suffering... but nails didn't hold him there. Love did. Crazy love. Most would say, "insane love", but wouldn't you do the same to spare your own children? 

So, God and I have been playing a little scripture game. I pray and write and then I challenge him to give me a verse that works with the days post that is better than what I had chosen. I hope I make him laugh... because intellectually... I know He will win every time. 

Still, I wait and look at His choice (my verse of the day from Biblegateway) as I come to the end of a daily post. Today, I think He is showing off... strutting his God stuff... for us. 

"Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God."-Hebrews 12:2

Really? This God... who still speaks daily...  through His holy word... He leaves me breathless. What a perfect way to conclude today. 

Jesus is the founder and the perfecter of our faith.  We could not get it right on our own. He chose and endured the cross for what comes after the cross. The victory is real. He is seated on the right hand of the throne of God. Our sin debt marked "paid in full". 

Now, the day ahead may have bumps, struggles and woes, but there is a "therefore" we can cling to with both hands and our whole heart. He is our firewall. We are not consumed. 

I need Him every hour. 

Today, I am grateful our needs can change hourly... but our God remains the same.