What is God like? There are some attributes of His character and nature that we can describe and talk about. Fully understand, no, but we can make good assumptions about them. For instance, He is all knowing, all seeing, all powerful, and eternal; He lives by His own standards and is always true to Himself. He alone is able to create something from nothing. Anything less than these and He wouldn't truly be God.
I have learned something about how this applies to me. In short, He gets to do whatever He wants, whenever He wants, and He never owes me an explanation. It's so important to get that: HE IS GOD. HE GETS TO DO WHATEVER HE WANTS, WHENEVER HE WANTS, AND HE NEVER OWES ME AN EXPLANATION.
If that's all we knew about Him, it would be a very harsh and scary statement. It that's all we knew about Him, it would be very hard to trust Him. If that's all we knew about Him and He could at any time be capricious or flighty, that would be His right and I should be very frightened. So it's important to review a few other things we know about God.
He is the Potter and everything else - all people, this world, this universe, all the angels, all of the spiritual realms, all beings and stuff anywhere, in any "dimension", of any type or description - is His clay. It all belongs to Him. Totally. No exceptions, and the Potter has absolute right over the clay.
So what restrains God? Nothing external can. I can't, you can't, humanistic philosophy can't, believing He isn't there can't, all the wishing in the universe can't, all the evil and fallen evil beings that ever existed can't. The only thing that restrains God is His own nature and character. He can never do anything that ever goes against His own nature. His plans and actions are unfailingly consistent with His nature and character.
That means it's a good thing to try to understand His nature and character. Here's some things about Him, but not all things about Him. It's impossible for any created being to have a list of everything about Him.
He has thought about my life and your life more times than there are grains of sand at the seashore. He has considered every possible twist and turn, forseeing all possibilities. His plans for me and for you are really good, so I can trust that He knows the best way to get us there. He doesn't need my counsel or insight, though He loves it when I talk with Him.
I am learning to trust Him more and more. Fear and trust do not mix, so as I'm on the path of trust I must confront the potholes of fear that say He's not trustworthy. With an act of my will, I choose to trust that He is taking me inexorably down the path that He has customized for me.
So what if things don't turn out the way I want them to in this life? So what if things become uncomfortable in this life? I choose to trust that He knows what He's doing, that He is taking me and shaping me to forever touch His heart in a way and in a place that no one else ever will. I choose to trust that His goals are wonderfully eternal, extend well beyond the brevity of this life, and are far better than whatever I've come up with, no matter how it looks from my oh-so-poor vantage point.
He loves me just as I am, but His love is far too great to stop there.
Because Jesus sacrificed Himself for me, paying the price for my fallen and rebellious nature, He forgives and accepts me as I am. He loves me just as I am, but His love is far too great to stop there. Here's the secret that is too often overlooked by teachings on easy Grace: His love gives me everything and is absolutely free, but He loves me far too much to leave me the way He finds me.
So He promises to change me, and that completely. That is far more important to Him and to me than it is for Him to simply give me stuff and make my life easy. He fully intends to change my very essence, making me able to spend eternity in complete harmony with Him. How could you or I be in heaven otherwise?
People tend to want stability; God sees the way we really are and knows that we can't stay this way, so He is all about changing and transforming us. God is into change. You can trust Him to get it right. Really, are there any other good options?
Embrace the path and the change that He has designed and customized for you, even though you don't know all that it will entail. You do know where it's going, though, even if only in fairly general terms. And it's going to be good. It's what we are being remade for, and I want to go there, whatever and however He sees fit. We can trust His heart and His intentions, absolutely and completely.
I have learned something about how this applies to me. In short, He gets to do whatever He wants, whenever He wants, and He never owes me an explanation. It's so important to get that: HE IS GOD. HE GETS TO DO WHATEVER HE WANTS, WHENEVER HE WANTS, AND HE NEVER OWES ME AN EXPLANATION.
If that's all we knew about Him, it would be a very harsh and scary statement. It that's all we knew about Him, it would be very hard to trust Him. If that's all we knew about Him and He could at any time be capricious or flighty, that would be His right and I should be very frightened. So it's important to review a few other things we know about God.
He is the Potter and everything else - all people, this world, this universe, all the angels, all of the spiritual realms, all beings and stuff anywhere, in any "dimension", of any type or description - is His clay. It all belongs to Him. Totally. No exceptions, and the Potter has absolute right over the clay.
So what restrains God? Nothing external can. I can't, you can't, humanistic philosophy can't, believing He isn't there can't, all the wishing in the universe can't, all the evil and fallen evil beings that ever existed can't. The only thing that restrains God is His own nature and character. He can never do anything that ever goes against His own nature. His plans and actions are unfailingly consistent with His nature and character.
That means it's a good thing to try to understand His nature and character. Here's some things about Him, but not all things about Him. It's impossible for any created being to have a list of everything about Him.
- He has no peers.
- He is a creator; that's the first part of His character that the Bible reveals to us, in Genesis 1.1.
- He is always true to Himself.
- He has emotions, powerful and strong, far deeper and richer than what we experience.
- He is timeless. I don't think that means that time doesn't exist for God; I do think it means that time is one of His creations and that it exists for God in ways that we cannot comprehend.
- He knows the end from the beginning.
- He is Love. Perfect Love is not just something He does. Perfect Love is His essence.
- He does not see our lives and our deaths here as we see them; His perspective is far different.
- He has timeless, incredible, wonderful plans for His children, plans that are so far beyond what we can imagine that we can't imagine how far beyond that they are.
- He is never wrong and He never makes a mistake. Never. Not even close and not even a shadow.
- He can never be outsmarted, cheated, or lied to.
He has thought about my life and your life more times than there are grains of sand at the seashore. He has considered every possible twist and turn, forseeing all possibilities. His plans for me and for you are really good, so I can trust that He knows the best way to get us there. He doesn't need my counsel or insight, though He loves it when I talk with Him.
I am learning to trust Him more and more. Fear and trust do not mix, so as I'm on the path of trust I must confront the potholes of fear that say He's not trustworthy. With an act of my will, I choose to trust that He is taking me inexorably down the path that He has customized for me.
So what if things don't turn out the way I want them to in this life? So what if things become uncomfortable in this life? I choose to trust that He knows what He's doing, that He is taking me and shaping me to forever touch His heart in a way and in a place that no one else ever will. I choose to trust that His goals are wonderfully eternal, extend well beyond the brevity of this life, and are far better than whatever I've come up with, no matter how it looks from my oh-so-poor vantage point.
He loves me just as I am, but His love is far too great to stop there.
Because Jesus sacrificed Himself for me, paying the price for my fallen and rebellious nature, He forgives and accepts me as I am. He loves me just as I am, but His love is far too great to stop there. Here's the secret that is too often overlooked by teachings on easy Grace: His love gives me everything and is absolutely free, but He loves me far too much to leave me the way He finds me.
So He promises to change me, and that completely. That is far more important to Him and to me than it is for Him to simply give me stuff and make my life easy. He fully intends to change my very essence, making me able to spend eternity in complete harmony with Him. How could you or I be in heaven otherwise?
People tend to want stability; God sees the way we really are and knows that we can't stay this way, so He is all about changing and transforming us. God is into change. You can trust Him to get it right. Really, are there any other good options?
Embrace the path and the change that He has designed and customized for you, even though you don't know all that it will entail. You do know where it's going, though, even if only in fairly general terms. And it's going to be good. It's what we are being remade for, and I want to go there, whatever and however He sees fit. We can trust His heart and His intentions, absolutely and completely.
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