Whenever I think of God’s unchanging nature, my go-to verse is Hebrews 13:8, which says, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”

Malachi 3:6 says, “I the Lord do not change.”

When it comes to the steadfast, unchanging nature of our God, I don’t think of the verse I’ll be reading today. Instead, I usually focus on the good and perfect gifts that come from God. In fact, the reason I decided on sharing this verse with you today is because I wanted to declare that every good and perfect gift comes from above. But God redirected my focus.

I love how God can show us new things from the familiar, and today’s declaration focuses on a different promise within a verse I know quite well. I’m glad God highlighted for me the relationship between His unchanging nature and His generosity. I don’t know how I missed it before, but every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father of lights no matter what. I don’t mean to assign human attributes to God. He is NOT human! He doesn’t have mood swings.

The fact that God isn’t shifty means that He doesn’t use His gifts to manipulate. His gifts flow from heaven to us with steadfast certainty no matter what we think, say or do.

God gives grace when we don’t earn it.

He gives mercy when we don’t deserve it.

He gives blessing upon blessing not because of what we’ve done, but because of who he is.

My original plan for today’s podcast was so that you and I would declare that every good and perfect gift comes from above. I love how God shows us things we weren’t even looking for, and I’m thankful that He redirected my focus today so that He could help me see that His generosity is not connected to my circumstances.

I’m thankful for God’s good gifts, but especially I’m thankful that He doesn’t shift like the shadows.

The first ten episodes of my video podcast, “Find Joy” walk you through my book, Longing to Belong, and the entire series is now available for viewing. Learn more on my website at shawnamariebryant.com.

This week’s scripture: James 1:17