The God I Know

Published 07 April, 2008

For the past five years, I have seen that more and more, everything I was ever taught about God was sorely a misrepresentation, and totally unbiblical. I grew up going to church, reading my Bible, and listening to preachers on TV. So, one might want to assume that a "good Christian boy” like myself would know God for who He is. In all actuality, however, I accepted lies about who God was as though they were truth, and because of that, I had a very wrong idea about God.

I was told that God loved me, and that Christ died for our sins, but, perhaps for dull ears, or lack of clarity in the church, I pictured God as a distant, angry God who was setting me up to fail for all the times I had sinned. I pictured a God who was harsh, overbearing, controlling and manipulative. It was about five years ago, that after spending some time with God, I began to radically reevaluate everything I thought I knew about God. I had learned in God’s presence that He was not a controlling God who had an angry disposition against mankind… but instead, was a loving Father who was deeply, actively and passionately in love with His creation.

I began to see that God’s love was so much larger than I had ever known or ever heard preached. So, I put down the lies that said I was rejected by God, and began to believe that by Christ’s blood I was accepted no matter how bad I acted, or how unfaithful I had been. This revolutionized my life and changed everything about me, right down to my personality – which for so long was dictated by what I felt I had to do to be accepted by people, the church, and God Himself.

Let me show you something in scripture to clarify and echo what I’m saying. In 1 John 4:8, 16 we read that, “God is love.” Then, in 1 Corinthians 13:4 we read, “Love is patient.” Let me stop there to ask you this question: If God is Love, than wouldn’t it be safe to say that God is patient, since love is patient? Of course it would. So, what else is Love (God)? 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 tells us, “Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails…”

God bears all things? Yes. God is not provoked? Right, yet the church paints a picture of God as a fierce man in the clouds looking for a person to mess up so he can hit them with lightning; but God isn’t like that. The God I know is not easily upset, He is not angry, He is not easy to offend, and keeps no count of wrongs. The God I know is merciful and longsuffering, the God I know is satisfied by us – simply because we are His children; the God I know is consumed with a passionate love for the creation He created to love. That’s the God I know…

God is not keeping a record of every time we mess up. He is not cheering for us to fail. Instead, God delights in us prospering, and He cheers us on. God Almighty believes in our abilities a lot more than we believe in His. I know that this may sound radical, or challenging to you, but seek God and read you Bible and find out if what I’m saying isn’t true.

Jesus said, “You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free." (John 8:32) That word "know" is the same word that Mary used when she told the angel that she “knew” no man, and therefore could not be pregnant. This Greek word more adequately means, “To know intimately;” and that is how we need to know God and God’s word (truth). When we begin to know God intimately, we begin to let our man-made beliefs about God fall away as we enter a passionate pursuit for the God who has passionately pursued us.

God loves us so deeply, yet we, through our feelings of unworthiness and rejection, hold God away at arm’s length thinking that a God who was close would know and reveal our failure. God has forgiven your sins if you have put your faith on Christ; and He welcomes you to come boldly before Him and to know Him. He is not far off, but near to all. He does not want to expose your failures, but to heal your wounds.

For a moment, close your eyes, and ask God to reveal His true nature to you as you begin to seek to know Him intimately. Getting to know God is a long journey – but one worth any price.