The Journey - Who Is God?
The Journey Continues!
(You can find prior blog entries at The Journey.)
Our spiritual formation… our life with God… depends on how we answer two questions -
Who is God?
Who am I?
Today, we are going to explore this first question: Who is God?
Why does it matter what we think of Him?
Our understanding of God and His character impacts everything in our life. How we view ourselves, what we think of others, what we choose to do each day, and how we interact with others. Our perception of God also determines how we pray, how we deal with tragedy and suffering, and even what we hope for.
What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. (Tozer. 1978)
What Forms Our Image of God
Many experiences shape our view of God.
Church teaching. What did you learn about God from your early years in church?
Our own earthly father. For some of us, a harsh or distant father can lead us to see our Heavenly Father as also harsh and distant. For others with good earthly fathers, our view of God can still be limited by our experience. What was your dad like and how has your view of God been shaped by him?
Another experience that can shape our view is disappointment or anger. Have hard things happened that have caused you to doubt or diminish your view of your Heavenly Father?
Our understanding of God’s character can be distorted and prevent us from living with God, in the fullness of love and goodness He offers.
Twisted Views of God
Perhaps you can relate to my struggle. I need to regularly review my perception of God because I can have wrong ideas about Him…
In the midst of trials and confusion… I think He is absent and unaware of my circumstances.
When I’ve sinned… I feel He is angry and condemns me.
I make Him into the kind of God I want Him to be… giving me everything I want!
It is helpful to name our distorted images and how they impact the ways we interact with God.
When we think of God as a Task Master, we will work to earn His favor. If we believe He is Absent and Distant, we may feel very alone, like everything is up to us. If we think He is Critical and Angry, we will fear Him and avoid Him. And if we make Him into an Indulgent Giver, always making things easy and good, we will miss His goodness when things don’t go our way.
A life-giving relationship with God is built on recognizing these distorted views and realigning our ideas with the truth of the Bible.
Biblical Descriptions of God
To straighten out our distorted view, the Bible gives us many wonderful pictures of God. None is complete on its own. Together, they begin to give us an understanding of His true character.
Here are a few Biblical images you may be familiar with.
Shepherd - John 10:11
I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
Friend - John 15:15
I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.
Father - Matthew 6:26
Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?
Creator - John 1:3
Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made
Potter - Isaiah 64:8
Yet you, Lord, are our Father.
We are the clay, you are the potter;
we are all the work of your hand.
A Fresh Biblical View of God
Scripture gives us even more ways to understand God’s character. He is big and beyond our comprehension. He is present with us always. He is Love. Jesus is the perfect representation of God. Grasping these truths helps us know who God really is. (Hall. 2023, Hudson. 2023)
God is Big!
God is… bigger than we can imagine, better than we can believe, and closer than we can hope! (Hudson. 2023)
When we limit God to what we think is possible, what we want, or what we can control, we are denying the truth of who God is. These also limit what is possible in our lives. The truth is that God is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent… big words to simply say He is all-powerful, all-knowing, and everywhere present. His bigness is beyond our comprehension and boundless, so it is also mysterious. We cannot completely know Him and His ways. And that is a good thing! We want God to be big!
God is Present
Awareness that God is always present with us changes everything. We are never alone. He is intimately aware of our circumstances, our thoughts, and our emotions. This can feel a bit daunting, unless we also remember that God is Love and He is lovingly present.
Matthew 28:20 says,
…surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.
The Bible describes Jesus’ constant awareness of God’s presence with Him.
To his (Jesus’) eyes this is a God-bathed and God-permeated world. It is a world filled with a glorious reality, where every component is within the range of God’s direct knowledge and control—though he obviously permits some of it, for good reasons, to be for a while otherwise than as he wishes. It is a world that is inconceivably beautiful and good because of God and because God is always in it. It is a world in which God is continually at play and over which he constantly rejoices. Until our thoughts of God have found every visible thing and event glorious with his presence, the word of Jesus has not yet fully seized us. (Willard. 1997, p. 71)
Jesus points us to the presence of God with us, always!
God is Love
A profound picture of God’s love can be found in the Trinity. (Fairbarn. 2009, Johnson. 2002)
Although the word “Trinity” never appears in Scripture, over and over we read descriptions of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and their relationship to each other. “God is love.” (1 John 4:8) The Trinity shows us this relationship of love between the Father and the Son, existing throughout all time, knit together by the presence of the Holy Spirit. As co-inheritors with Christ, we are invited to call Jesus’ Father, Our Father. We are invited to participate in the love that the Father and Son have for each other. This is perfect love. Love given and received… Love received and given… through all time. God is Love.
Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 1 John 4:8
You and I are included in this love relationship! The perfect, ongoing, intimate love of the Father and Son, with the Spirit. Acts 17:28 describes this relationship,
‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’
Augustine in the 4th century said this of the Trinity,
God (is at once) Lover, Beloved, and Love itself. (Hill. 1991)
God Is Seen In The Person of Jesus
As we seek to know God better, Jesus is the perfect person to show us God.
Colossians 1:15 reads,
The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.
Jesus is the perfect revelation of who God is. We get to know the Father when we get to know Jesus, and we can get to know Jesus by keeping company with Him in the Gospels. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are all about what Jesus said and did. As His disciples and apprentices, we learn about God and learn to be more like Jesus as we study and meditatively read the Gospels.
Spending Time with God
Just as we get to know and enjoy other people by spending time with them, we get to know God by spending time with Him. Time with God helps us identify our false perceptions of Him. Scripture helps us replace those false ideas with the truth of who He is. As we get to know who God truly is, we learn to live life with Him. We experience the security, love, and peace of life with God.
To Consider
What are your views of God? Do they line up with Scripture?
Which of these descriptions of God are attractive? Which one(s) do you sense some resistance to? (Often resistance can be a place to learn something new from God. Try to be curious about these things.)
How can you get to know God better?
A Couple of Invitations
Keep company with Jesus in the Gospels. Read through one of the Gospels slowly, imagining yourself there with Jesus. What does He do? How does He relate to others?
Spend time with God. Take a walk and talk with Him. Or sit in nature and enjoy what He has created.
In Two Weeks
The Journey Blog will have a simple practice you can try so you can learn about and experience more of God’s character.
Next Month
We will take a look at the second question noted at the beginning of this blog. Who am I?
Additional Resources
Drawing a Picture of God, by Trevor Hudson
The Omnipotence, Omniscience, and Omnipresence of God, by John M. Frame
No Trinity, No Love, by Jared C. Wilson
The Exponentially Personal Trinity, by Christopher Hall
References
Fairbairn, Douglas. Life in the Trinity, An Introduction to Theology With The Help of The Church Fathers. 2009. Downers Grove. InterVarsity Press.
Hall, Chris. 2022. “The Beauty and Wonder of the Trinity.” Lecture at Renovare Residency, September 13, 2022.
Hill, Edmund. 1991, St. Augustine, De Trinitate Book X. Brooklyn. New City Press, 1991
Hudson, Trevor. 2022. “Our Picture of God.” Lecture at Renovare Residency, September 13, 2022.
Johnson, Darrell W. 2002. Experiencing the Trinity. Vancouver, BC. Regent College Publishing.
Tozer, A.W. The Knowledge of the Holy. 1978. New York: HarperCollins.
Willard, Dallas. The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life In God. 1997. New York. HarperCollins Publishers. p. 71
If you don’t know me… my name is Anne Greski. I serve as Women’s Ministry Director at Shallowford Church. I am a second-year student at the Renovare Institute, where I am learning how to enjoy life with God and share the deeper journey of Spiritual Formation in Christlikeness with others. My great desire is to experience friendship with God, and learn to love as God loves. You can reach me at anne@shallowford.church