When my children were little, my husband said I should write a book called How to Lie to Your Kids, because I’d say stuff like, “Oh, bummer, I was going to give you ice cream, but because you’re fighting that’s not going to happen.” I didn’t have ice cream. Or I’d suggest we’d go to the neighbor’s pool but not follow through because I was tired.

So when I read that our heavenly Father “does not lie or change his mind; for he is not a human being, that he should change his mind” (1 Samuel 15:29), I’m a little baffled—and humbled. 

I’m in awe that the God who made me not only doesn’t lie but also can’t lie, because it’s not in his nature. (Satan, on the other hand, is called the father of lies, so it’s pretty clear whose pants are on fire.) 

Plus, God keeps his promises, every single one. He knows what’s good for us in both the short and long term, and he sticks to that plan. His Son, Jesus, could have come to earth and changed his mind when he saw just how painful a death on a cross would be, but he didn’t. He endured the pain, never wavering in his commitment to us. When he promises heaven, heaven is actually there waiting for us. When he tells us we’re going there, we know he’ll follow through.