Do you have any conception of the power of those 2 words? The power comes from their limiting ability. I consciously try not to use either of those two words, primarily because they are so restraining. Once spoken, they immediately confine the speaker to an unchangeable position and the listener is stopped from any discussion. My experience has been that when I did blurt out one of these words, life’s vagaries immediately prove me wrong.
But… who or what is always always or never never? Life holds so much that are ‘unexpecteds’ and surprises, how can one say ‘always’/’never’? Are there exceptions to this? If you look to things, people that don’t change or that are permanent then there’s a possibility that there could be an exception. However, what or who is immutable, unchanging? Is there permanence with anything?
Actually, the only exception is God. He tells us in His word that He changes not.(Malachi 3:6). I sometimes wonder if it is because there is so much change that faces us that He chose to be unchanging. However, that’s a somewhat superficial thought because it goes much deeper. It’s quite simple – God is our always and never. He is the standard, the foundation, the constant so we can know and rely on that what He says…is. Though He doesn’t change, our understanding, our relationship with Him does as it grows. This is an exciting journey and from Him we can discover always and never, to understand the unchanging and live with the changing.
Do we need an always/never? Absolutely! We all need something or someone we can rely on to be precisely what they say. Without it we stand on shifting sand and can never get our footing. The Lord IS this foundation. To receive, to live in this assurance, all that is asked from us is to believe, to have faith and trust. We demonstrate this through our words and through our actions – through our witness of relying on Him and, equally important, keeping our eyes on Him rather than the circumstances.
