Malachi 3:6 NIV
[6] “I the Lord do not change. So you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed.
Thinking back to early 2020 – start of lockdown and toilet paper wars! Of all things 🧻 right 😏 ridiculous, isn’t it! At that time, it wasn’t.
We can laugh and joke about it, now, all we like, and we’ve moved on. But in hindsight, it points out a big weakness in humanity – and how easy it is to fall to the dark forces of greed, self gratification, power, fear, and many more!
I mean, people were fighting over toilet paper. It was all over the news! 🤷♀️ What have we learnt since then? If something similar happens, are we going to go down the same path?
Or will we choose to care more for and share with each other rather than be at each other’s throats for the littlest of things like toilet paper?? 😏🤔 Food for thought this rainy and cold Friday 05.04.2024 … 🙏❤️
Yes, all it took was one picture for me to go back in time, last Friday. I started reflecting on the many changes that have happened around, near, and to me – both local and global. As I was going through the motions, this Bible verse – Malachi 3: 6 – popped up on my phone.
My immediate family’s growing and changing – my husband and I, aging gracefully, we hope🤞😀, right alongside them. We’ve lost extended family members and friends 😢; and welcomed new ones by the grace of God 🙏.
We’ve survived a pandemic, as well as not one but two redundancies in the space of 18 – 24 months. And travelled back home to PNG to spend time with family there. We even travelled to the other side of the Pacific Ocean and back.
There are so many other things happening around us – poverty on the rise, hard hitting inflation, the ‘gap’ between have and have-nots growing bigger, there’s countries at war, earthquakes, tsunamis, floods and many more.
Through all these, I’ve seen the hand of God at play in our lives. The God who created everything, God of Israel, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob – is the same God whom mine or your parents served or worshipped is the same God you and I worship today.
Hebrews 13:8-9 NIV
[8] Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. [9] Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings. It is good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace, not by eating ceremonial foods, which is of no benefit to those who do so.
He is the same God in PNG, in the Pacific Ocean, and on the other side of it. And He will be the God our descendants will worship many generations from now. He doesn’t change. How amazing is that 🙏
[8] For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— [9] not by works, so that no one can boast.
Yes, times have changed, technology has advanced so much, and it will continue to do so. Making mere mortals like us think we’re smarter than God, with our smart devices, technological innovations, and so on.
God remains constant and unchanged! He is the same yesterday, today, and always 🙏 And it is by His grace that we are saved, not our works. His grace that He pours out on everyone daily.
Psalms 90:1-4 NIV
[1] Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations. [2] Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the whole world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. [3] You turn people back to dust, saying, “Return to dust, you mortals.” [4] A thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night.
From everlasting to everlasting He is God 🙏 To God be the glory always ❤️
Idau Hahine 