Does God Change His Mind?

As God’s people can we truly petition God to change His mind about a situation if He is all-wise?  There are various passages of Scripture that speak about God’s character and His nature.

Malachi 3:6 says, “I the LORD do not change. So you, O descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed.”

Numbers 23:19 reads, “God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should change His mind. Does He speak and then not act? Does He promise and not fulfill?”

James 1:17 tells us, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.”

According to these verses God does not change His mind and He is totally wise all of the time.  However, there are some verses in Scripture that are difficult to make sense of such as:  Genesis 6:6, “The LORD was grieved that He had made man on the earth, and His heart was filled with pain.”  There is also Exodus 32:14, “Then the LORD relented and did not bring on His people the disaster He had threatened.”  A final example would be in Jonah 3 where God told Jonah to prophecy that the great city of Nineveh would be overthrown unless the Assyrians repented. 

In Scripture God has made conditional declarations that if someone repented then God would relent.  When people abide by God’s operating principles then they can expect relief and at times even blessing.  In the book of Jonah that is exactly what happened with the Assyrians~~they repented and then God relented the punishment that He was going to deliver to them.  We can also learn that in Genesis 6:6 God helps us to understand his sadness and frustration with His creation that chose to rebel. 

It is also worth noting in James 4:2-3 that we have not because we do not ask God and sometimes we ask with wrong motives of selfishness.  Apparently God does hear us and grant us the desires of our hearts.  However, at times when our motives are not pure then He withholds.  Similarly, Christ told his followers in Mark 11:24 that they don’t have because they lack faith in what they ask for.  God sets the standards of criteria for blessing and not blessing His people.  Many times things are conditional contingent on the Christians obedience.

So, does God change~~the answer is definitely no.  However, God works from the principles of sowing and reaping with His people.  God also fulfills His end of the deal~~always.  In fact, when a sinner (called an enemy of God in Romans 8:7) places their faith in trust in the person and work of Jesus Christ, they are then called God’s beloved children (1 John 1:12).  What or who changed~~we do.  God’s moral character and His righteous judgments always stay the same.