Never. Just as there are several important things for us to know of the Lord which are always, there are several important things which are “never”, meaning at no time in the past or future; on no occasion; not ever. “Never”, as God uses the word is an absolute negative.
One of the first things that is never is that God is never man, and inversely, man is never God. Numbers 23:19, “God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?” We may work to reduce the Lord to being on equal footing with us imagining the Lord to struggle with things like we do, but that is only what we may wish except in no wise is it true, ever. He is always God and there is never a time He is not, i am never God and there’s never a time i am.
The Lord God does not sin, and if there is no sin, there is no transgression, nor is there iniquity. 1John3:5, “You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin.” Jesus did not miss the mark, fall short in any fashion, nor was there or will be a place for death and dying to find a foothold in Him.
God is never late, and as long as we live it is never too late. In Luke 11 there is a story of Jesus showing up right on time. A mother’s son had died and was being carried out to be buried. The young son had obviously been dead for a least long enough to be prepared for the burial, so it wasn’t like in the last minute or two he stopped breathing. No, the boy was dead, real dead. What did Jesus do? He encouraged the mother to not worry, and told the boy to get up from his death bed. Jesus was not late, but right on time. God is not the God of the last minute, he’s always on time, perfectly, and never late.
Love never fails, and God never fails! 1John4:8, “Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love”, and 1 Corinthians13 tells us that Love never fails. In addition, God never is envious or a braggart, never arrogant or rude, He is never irritable, resentful, and never, ever, ever is glad anyone does the wrong thing.
The Lord will never betray us. Psalm89:33, the Lord says, “….but I will not remove from him my steadfast love or be false to my faithfulness.” This is important because we often want the Lord to be guilty of the things we are guilty of, but He is not. God should not descend to join us in our iniquity so we don’t have to be guilty, but we should ascend to join Him in His righteousness instead. Even though Jesus became flesh and took our sin to Himself, He had no sin, never did He sin or transgress, nor did any of our sin stick to Him that He would be defiled.
God is never tired, He never grows weary and never needs a nap. Isa40:28, “Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable.” Oh, and that last part, his understanding is unsearchable, that means the wisdom of God is never ending, He understands all things so perfectly, there is no end to His insight. The Lord never gets tricked, never is manipulated, and never is out maneuvered. Never.
The Lord will never leave you. We who are believers tell each other He will never leave us, forsaken like orphans, but once again, the details of our lives tell another story. God never lies, so it is true, He will never leave you, so let’s cut out this “woe is me” attitude saying one thing but then, when we do something wrong or act out inappropriately, stop acting like, “The Lord has left the room. You know, God can’t be where sin is, so he’s not with me.” Gosh, what another lie, an absolute colossal lie at that. If God can’t be where sin is, then how could He be where you were when you got saved? Forgive me for using such a forceful word, but it’s the truth, that’s just stupid and self-validates our attitude of, “If i were God i wouldn’t like me either.” Well, Hey! It’s your lucky day, how fortunate for you, you aren’t God, because that’s not how He thinks or feels.
God never wastes, not one little piece, of all that we go through. Remember Romans 8:28, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”? That’s no fooling around, the Lord never speaks glibly, saying stuff He doesn’t really mean.
Lastly, God will never die, or fade away. He is everlasting, unending. Psalm90:2 says the Lord is “from everlasting to everlasting you are God.” He came from eternity and He stretches into eternity. God never made application to some ethics board or to some gov’t agency for Him to be God and operate as He does. He never asks their permission to be the Lord, they should ask His permission to be an agency or a government.
Set these things in stone in your heart and mind, bank on them, and re-think how you see the Lord. We truly must address our twisted ideas of the Lord.
What do you think? There are actually more than 18, how many can you find?