Lawrenceville Daily Record

Is There Any Stability Anymore?



What images convey stability to you? Is it mountains, with their ancient peaks pointing up to the sky? Or maybe it is grandparents whose commitment to their marriage you never had reason to question. It might be some institution you know of that has stood the test of time.

We like stability in life and suffer when we do not have enough. Children are more likely to flourish in a household where mom and dad stick together and work together in ways that provides stability. Stable employment and steadily depositing money into a retirement account gives some reassurance that our future is cared for. Even routine provides a sense of stability for us, because it helps our frame of mind to routinely complete the most important tasks in a day.

But instability, unfortunately, is also a part of life. It has been since the fall of Adam and Eve into sin. And since the pandemic started, we live with instability every day. We work to stay healthy, but are not always successful. The kids are exposed again to COVID at school and are quarantined again, requiring some adult to stay home and miss work again. Politics are crazy, leaving us with little trust in those who govern us. Some jobs are disrupted, some products can’t make it to the shelves at Walmart, and then there are family problems, the burdens of caregivers, a culture that changes very rapidly and not for the better, shrinking churches, aging bodies and so much more.

But there is One who does not change. In Psalm 104:25-27, the Psalmist compares the foundations of the earth and heavens themselves to God. All that is created deteriorates but not God. “They will perish, but you will remain…you are the same and your years have no end.” The prophet Micah records God saying, “’For I the LORD do not change’” (3:6). These verses tell us that God’s very being, character, purposes and power are stable. Nothing can send God into a tizzy or worry him or threaten his plans. He is stable.

As we march into 2022 with little sense of stability and no knowledge of what lies ahead, we can cling to the one who is perfectly stable, consistent, and who knows the future (Isaiah 46:10). God is the one constant that we can depend on. As the saying goes, “I don’t know what the future holds but I know who holds the future.” How will you handle this new year and all that it will bring? Placing one’s trust in God provides a stable anchor point for all that will come.

Russ Veldman is pastor at Lawrenceville’s Free Methodist Church. He has been a resident of Lawrence County since 2013.

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