WHAT IS GOD LIKE?

“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change” (James 1:17).

Reading: James 1:16-18

God does not change. He is light and always remains light. There are no shadows in His character. He does not say one thing one day and the opposite the next. He is constant, immovable, firm, and solid. He does not fluctuate like the waves of the sea. There is no doubt or change of mind in Him.

He is different from the believer who today thinks one way and tomorrow another; who has faith today but doubts tomorrow. At one moment, he believes the Lord will answer his prayers, and shortly after, he is not so sure. His spirit wavers. He asks, believes, and then doubts. James instructs us to ask “in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways” (vv. 6-8). The reason we sometimes do not see answers to our prayers is inconsistency, or in other words, a lack of persevering faith.

Being inconsistent means not being like our Father in heaven, the unchanging God who does not change. We are His children, born again through faith in Christ: “Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures” (v.18). We have been born into His family to be new creations, resembling our Father in our character. One aspect of this new character (or rather, our basic personality refined and perfected) is consistency, just like our Father. It means being children of light, in whom “there is no variation or shadow due to change.”

We have a Father in heaven who sends us good gifts—perfect gifts that come from above, from His loving presence, prepared for our good. He is magnificent, generous, always good, always giving, always sending good gifts to His children from His dwelling in heaven to ours on earth. He has never sent anything bad, for there is no darkness in Him, only light—never deceit. From the creation of mankind until today, there has never been any variation in His loving intentions toward His children.

Today, we open our hearts to receive His good gifts, and the prayer that comes from our lips is: “Father, I want to be like You, a child of light, without shadows of variation, a giver of good gifts to those around me. Amen.”