Earthquake!

I realized this morning as I was studying the Word of how much I have been striving for stability in my life over the last ten or more years.  With the attack on my lovely wife’s health, my life has gone into a tailspin.  When we moved back to our home in California after living in Oklahoma when I completed my Bible College studies, I expected to find the stability that we had felt there for the majority of our lives.  But as I have stated on previous occasions… it was not to be found!

We changed in those three years away, friends and family changed as did many of the places and things that we frequented and depended on in the past.  While I believe that the Lord had instructed us to return home to, among two other things, “re-establish our network of family and friends,” what I didn’t understand was that we were to “re-establish” a whole new and potentially different network of concerned and helpful family and friends.

To put it mildly, those five years back in our hometown were anything but stable for us!  The Message Bible paraphrases the end of James 1:17 by saying in our modern vernacular that “There is nothing deceitful in God, nothing two-faced, nothing fickle.”  The two words “deceitful” and “fickle” perfectly summarize our experiences as we finally saw the need to break away from parts of the old network and replace them with new occupants.

Dictionary.com describes “deceitful” as one who attempts “to mislead by a false appearance or statement,” and “Fickle” as one “likely to change, especially due to caprice, irresolution, or instability; a sudden, unpredictable change, as of one’s mind or the weather.”  As it turned out, some folks whom we had close relationships with and trusted, suddenly turned to show us a side of them that we had not seen in the past. Out of the blue we started hearing misleading stories and facts being passed on to our kids and friends.  After a while, I never knew from day to day how stable they were going to be concerning Piper and I as we faced her rapidly down-graded needs.

At one point I felt like I had returned home only to experience an earthquake in my life that rivaled and maybe even surpassed the great 1906 earthquake that actually hit our town harder than it did San Francisco!  With my personal emotions shaking wildly, I desperately sought stability in my devasted world.

And thank the Lord that I was to find that stability in the Word of God along with old friends I hadn’t seen in a while and extended family on my side that seemed to come out of the woodwork to reach out to us!  The King James version says that with God there is “NO variableness” or “shadow of turning.”  While everything else in just about every area of one’s life may be shaking and falling apart, Papa God assures us that His Word doesn’t vary or shake you and your surroundings.

Those words spoken to us from the New Testament haven’t changed since they were spoken and then written down over 2000 years ago.  They are as truthful and sound as they were then as they are today… for you and me!  The writer of Hebrews confirms this when he (or she?) stated that: “Jesus Christ (Who is the Word: John 1:1) never changes! He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” 

Now that folks, is the stability that I have needed!  I am still using the same 100 verses on Healing that I got from my Pastor back in 2009 as the foundation for all the DAILY scriptures I declare over my wife first thing in the morning and last thing at night… and many times in-between!  Piper’s medication list may have changed over the years, her condition may have changed as well… but we are still stuck like Gorilla Super Glue on the Word as the foremost and major prescription for her.

Are you reeling from a lack of stability in your life?  Do you ever feel like you’re in the midst of an active earthquake fault zone… even though you may not even live in California?  Well, God and His Word is the answer, the safe zone, the solid-unshakable Rock for your life!  Rest assured that you’ll find NO deceit in His Words, nothing two-faced and absolutely NOTHING fickle.  He’ll tell you the same story, the same word of truth day in and day out… to your face and behind your back!

Have a great and fickle-less weekend, and as you do, keep asking yourself… “Who’s WORD am I expecting to believe and stand on without fear of shaking… for my life today?”