What is God like? What we think about God can be influenced by a variety of facts and impressions. You may look to “church-going people” to get an idea of what God is like. Maybe a TV Evangelist, or a representative of one of our societies esteemed organizations or a letter “To the Editor” in your local newspaper written by someone who calls himself a Christian shapes your view of God. You may or may not gain glimpses of what God is really like from those sources-but where do you get the real thing?
In the Bible, we see God frequently portray himself as Father. We can see his fatherly love in the fact that:
He wants us
We are not biological accidents or illegitimate in God’s sight, even if our parents didn’t want us or our conception was part of an atrocious and sinful act such as rape. God planned your existence!
He loves us
God is neither a “Police-man-God”, waiting to whack us over the head at every misstep we make, nor a senile old “Santa Claus”, who just doles out presents to keep us happy. In Him integrity, justice, compassion and mercy are married in perfect union. His love is seen best in the fact that although our sinfulness required harsh judgment, through his son Jesus, God found a way to both be just and merciful, by placing our punishment on.
He teaches us
Because God loves us, he trains us. This might include difficult things for us, which we may not understand. Consider a human father who “tricks” his young child into taking a bitter tasting medicine. The little child may not understand the fathers reasoning at the time, but the loving father knew it was absolutely necessary for the child to take the medicine to get well. His discipline is often under-appreciated at the time one goes through it-but once the benefits are visible, hurt feelings give way to thankfulness for his insistence and patience with us.
Take some time today and start on a journey to know God more by reading his word and by talking to him! Study the life of Jesus, because the Bible says, that when we have known him, we will also know the Father (John 14:7-9)
© 2000 Volkhard Graf, YWAM Native Ministries
(Permission to reproduce this material is automatically granted on the condition it will be used for non-commercial purposes, will not be sold, and will be distributed for the sole purpose of expanding the Gospel.)
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