God Speaks In Present Tense

Heaven and earth will disappear, but my words will never disappear.

Matthew 24:35

The first thing God teaches us about himself in Scripture is that he is a speaking God, whose words are the instruments of his work.

When God says, “Let there be . . . ,” atoms bond together into mass, molecules accumulate into matter, cells fuse, and things that were not suddenly exist. When the breath of his mouth rushes out to vocalize his word, even the tiniest neutrino is ordered into lockstep. “The LORD merely spoke, and the heavens were created. He breathed the word, and all the stars were born” (Psalm 33:6).

God’s word is as powerful now as it was in the beginning. His word is eternal, settled, unshakable: “Your eternal word, O LORD, stands firm in heaven” (Psalm 119:89). His revealed Word—the Scriptures—is his sacred promise. Every sentence, every phrase, every clause is truth on which we can stake our lives.

But God’s Word is not merely ancient literature, trapped in time and irrelevant today. It speaks in present ways into the nows of your life. It echoes into the present and the future and lands in our lives as if freshly spoken. Nothing God speaks is without power. And God never utters a throwaway line. Cling to the promise of his Word, and let your faith find its foothold there.

Father, that you—Creator, Sustainer, All-in-All—would speak to me leaves me speechless. What words could I form that would do other than dissipate into the air around me and be gone as soon as they leave my lips? I receive the wisdom of Solomon when he proclaimed that God is in heaven and we are here on earth. Let our words be few. So, In-the-Beginning God, would you speak to me, and then through me? May your Word teach me, and shape me, and saturate me.

Let God’s promises shine on your problems.

Corrie Ten Boom(1892–1983), Dutch author, speaker, and concentration camp survivor