Over the years I have discovered that one’s view of God, even if not consciously articulated, has a way of affected one’s relationship with God. I have also discovered over the years that some of my own God-views have been way off base. 18 years ago I began a quest to know and love the God who knows and loves me. While I think I’m beginning to get an accurate picture of who God really is, here are some inaccurate views of God that many, including myself at various points in my quest, hold.
God is a sheriff, out to get me with his six-shooter once I mess up. The only thing God cares about is whether I break his law or not. If I do, I’m dead meat!
God is a happy clown, totally harmless and only concerned with making me happy- not holy. I can pretty much do anything I want and this God will simply laugh and support whatever makes me feel good- even if it means sinning against Him or others in the process.
God is an old man, powerless and impotent. He is sweet and mannerly, but is too feeble to do anything powerful. He is totally harmless.
God is so holy and austere that he is completely inaccessible. He certainly wouldn’t want to hang out with a sinful loser like me.
God is my buddy, who exists to give me the thumbs up on whatever I want to do and whatever I want to be. No matter what I want, even if it’s harmful to me or others, he is there to simply give me the thumb’s up.Make a comment to this post by clicking on the word “comment” below and let me know which one of the God-Views above describes how you once viewed God.
9 comments:
When i was growing up, i thought God was a big bully. Everytime i got in trouble or had family problems i wouls cry or ask for help and it never seemed to come. I imagined him looking down and pointig and laughing or something like that. When i was a child i needed everything to be right or the way i though was right or God was not helpful or even care.
When i was a little older i started to really try to send time getting to know God. Everytime i think i am getting close to figureing him out, he has another suprise. Sometimes He overwhelms me because He is everything and is in everything and apart of every aspect of my life.There are honestly there are time where i see him as a nagging mother.
So now i see him more as a father, leader, bestfriend.
As a child, I saw God as my buddy, but I didn’t understand much more. I remember singing happy songs in Sunday school. I knew he loved me, but the rest of the Sunday school lessons must have gone in one ear and out the other. At least I got the love part right!
As a teenager and young adult, I saw God as a sheriff. I should have paid much closer attention in Sunday school, because I didn’t live these years anywhere close to how God would have liked me to. Based on how much I messed up, I thought I was dead meat! There was no hope for me! I guess I also saw him as holy and austere. I was so lost in myself, he must have written off a sinner like me. I am ashamed that I didn’t take the time to really get to know Him sooner. Obviously this view was totally wrong, God pursues us, even when we least expect it, after years of not really giving him the time of day.
Since I started to really get to know Him about three years ago, every aspect of my life has improved dramatically. Thank you, Pastor Lenny and so many brilliant friends at SWC for your love, support, direction and enlightenment. I am beginning to understand who God really is.
Thanks for your comments Ann and Brad. I appreciate your honesty and can totally relate to your journeys. It's amazing how we put more stock in our opinions about God than we put in God's self-revelation through Christ and the Bible. We would never rely purely on our opinions when it comes to investing our money and choosing a college or a career. But on the most important issue that we must resolve in life, namely who God is, we humans are too willing to base our perspective on hunches and opinions. We are an odd race!
I used to think that I knew how God was going to respond to "x y or z". In more recent years he has been showing me how wrong I am and how my "thoughts are not his thoughts and my ways are not his ways". As the years go by I have become more and more amazed at how he "works" with people to help them come to know him. His compassion, patience and love is unbelievable. I know that I can't possibly understand him, yet I also know that his love is beyond my wildest imagination. I always thought there were so many limitations to what he was willing to do for us unless we "toed" the line. But that is not true. There is nothing he would not do for we his fragile, struggling children to bring us to the place where we can know his peace. Trying to figure him out has been a huge waste of energy - learning to trust him and to rest in him is the most rewarding of adventures.
Well said Roberta. God is not calling us to "figure him out," as you put it, but to lovingly and courageously trust him enough to follow him wherever he leads.
When I was younger I knew God heard my prayers although they were the Catholic repetitive ones. I sincerely believed he heard me and cared about what concerned me. I didn't know the Lord as my personal Saviour than it wasn't until I was 24 that I accepted him as my Lord and Saviour. In fact I often thought I had to go to Mary first I was taught to believe that because she was Jesus Mother she would intercede on my behalf. So my belief than was sincerely wrong. Now Living for him doesn't even compare to anything I can ever fathom in life. He is everything to me I grow to love him more and more everyday.
I was the anonymous comment sorry I pressed the wrong button . Have a good day. I really like the pictures and the captions on this blog .
Thanks Maria. I grew up Catholic too...most Italians have no choice. In light of your comments I think about 1 Timothy where Paul writes, "there is one God and one mediator between God and humans- Christ Jesus." That verse pretty much says it all.
I grew up in a solid christian home and was active in a Biblically sound church. Servanthood and hospitallity and generosity were a way of everyday life for my family. I had no issues understanding and accepting God as the loving Father who cared about my every need or concern, or His call to obedience and faithfullness. I saw His majesty and awesomeness in Creation everyday and everywhere. It was through a journey over the past 12 (or so) years that I have come to view God in a new way through the power of worship. It is the intimate, personal God whom I have come to enjoy and trust as I have learned to express to Him honor and thanks through personal and corrporate praise and worship.
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