Fear. Worry. Anxiety. These are things that each of us experience and struggle with on a regular basis. Due to our fallen nature as sinners, each of us are tempted to turn our attention away from God’s good and sovereign care of us and focus on our ourselves and our situation. This is exactly what the people of God were doing in Isaiah 51:12-13. We see God’s people in these verses being “afraid of man” and “fearing continually all the day.” Why were they afraid? In a human sense, they had a pretty good reason. They were facing “the wrath of their oppressors” who were set out to destroy them. But spiritually, why were their hearts afraid? There is a key reason given in verse 13 — They had forgotten the Lord, their Maker.

As I was reading and pondering these verses, I was reminded how true this is in our lives even today. At its core, when we are worried, afraid, and anxious, it is because we have turned our hearts and minds away from God and have, in effect, “forgotten Him.”

But who exactly is this God that we need to be careful not to forget? If we are going to remember Him and not forget him, we must be careful that we come to His Word (the Bible) and get an accurate picture of who He is. So I want you to think with me for a minute about just one of God’s attributes that we see in His Word, and how our fear, worry, and anxiety would begin to fade if we kept God front and center in our mind.

One of the pictures of God that we see in the Bible is that He is unchanging. In the Bible, we are told that God is unchanging in His being, His perfections, His purposes, and His promises. We see the Psalmist compare creation and the Creator in Psalm 102:25-27, declaring at the end of that passage that God is the same, and His years have no end. God Himself speaks in Malachi 3:6 and declares, “I the Lord do not change.” Regarding His purposes and promises, we see in Psalm 33:11 that “the counsel of the LORD stands forever.” And in Isaiah 46:9-11, we hear God declare at the end of those verses: “I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed, and I will do it.”

Take a moment and think about what an amazing truth this is that God cannot change in His being and perfections! That means that all we read about in Scripture — that He is good, that He is loving, that He is just, that He is sovereign, that He is righteous, that He is holy — He will not and cannot change these things! God cannot get better, and He certainly will not get worse. What an amazing truth this is for us, that the God of the universe in whom we are trusting and turning to is the ultimate, perfect God who will not change, no matter what changes happen in our life.

Now take another moment and think about what an amazing truth this is that God cannot change in regard to His purposes and promises! One of the greatest promises that we have in Scripture is that, though we are dead in sin and deserve God’s righteous, holy wrath (Ephesians 2:1-3), He made a way of salvation through the perfect atonement of Jesus as our substitute (1 John 4:10). And if we will repent of our sins and turn to Jesus alone for salvation, we will have eternal life with Him (John 3:16; Acts 2:37-38, 3:19). What an amazing promise this is. And guess what — We don’t have to worry or wonder if God is going to keep this promise! He is unchanging! He has promised it, and it will come to pass!

This is just one attribute of the One, true God of the universe that we see in the Bible. But imagine how transforming it would be for each of us if, as we begin this new year in 2018, we would not be like the Israelites who “forgot the Lord their maker,” but instead would be people who would constantly turn our hearts and minds to Him. Imagine if we gave our time and attention to studying about who He is in His Word. If we did this in order to remember the Lord our God, we would see our fears, worries, and anxieties begin to lessen because our hope would be in our Sovereign God and not in ourselves or our situation. That is my prayer for you in this new year — Remember the Lord, your Maker.

Zack Ford

Zack is the Associate Pastor at Grace Bible Church in Northeast Georgia. A graduate from North Greenville University with his B.A. and The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary with his M.Div., Zack has been serving at GBC since 2013. Zack has had the opportunity to serve in various ministry capacities, including working for Dr. Mohler while at SBTS as well as writing regularly on his website, Longing4Truth.com. Zack is married to Brittni and has a son and a daughter.