Knowing, Not Wavering

Knowing, Not Wavering

 

“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning” (James 1:17 KJV).

 

In our moments of spiritual exaltation we may sometimes seem to ourselves to have great wisdom, strength, or spiritual riches of one kind or another in which to glory; but when we come down from the “mount of vision” into the humdrum routine of everyday life, these grand spiritual possessions all seem to disappear, and we are left with nothing of them to glory in.

 

God alone is unchangeable; what we call “spiritual blessings” are full of the element of change. The prayer that is answered today may seem to be unanswered tomorrow; the promises once so gloriously fulfilled may cease to have any apparent fulfillment; the spiritual blessing that was at one time such a joy may be utterly lost; and nothing of all we once trusted in and rested on may be left but the hungry and longing memory of it all. But when all else is gone, God is still left. Nothing changes Him. He is “the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever” (Heb. 13:8), and in Him “is no variableness, neither shadow of turning” (James 1:17). The soul who finds his joy in Him alone can suffer no wavering.

 

To rejoice in the Lord is not a pious fiction, nor is it merely a religious phrase. Neither is it anything mysterious or awe-inspiring. It is just good plain common-sense happiness and comfort. It is something people around us can see and be glad about. When we are cast down, everything is a burden; when we are happy, we feel equal to anything.