◄ My Lord and My God - Character and Attributes of God (28) ►

STUDY - Character and Attributes of GOD

And Thomas said My Lord and My God
John 20:28

Imagined Image

It is man’s innate tendency to form a mental image of God.. often building a perception of God based upon his culture and upbringing. But the heart of man has been deeply flawed by our sin-heritage, for the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked Jer.17:9 We all unconsciously conceive God in our own imagery and thought. This is not only true of the natural man, who is dead in trespasses and sins – this is also true of each of us who are blood-bought sons of God. This is equally true of the spiritual believer as it is of the carnal Christian.

True Image

Denominations and individuals alike envisage the God in whom they trust, and all too often the image that emerges is a distortion of the truth. All too often His resemblance has its poisoned roots in our early life. Role models we should trust and ached to believe in, let us down. Teachings of the church we attended or avoided..distorted God’s character, and over time, plus the input of life, God emerges – masked by our own imaginings. There are probably as many perceptions of God as there is sand on the seashore. But there is only one true character and likeness of God – the man Christ Jesus.

Distorted Views

Some lay particular weight upon His love, but ignore His justice. Some lay particular emphasis upon His justice, while disregarding His love. Some go overboard with grace, and are drawn into licentious living. Others focus upon the law, pointing an accusing finger at so many other people. Some believe that God requires certain rituals or He cannot not accept us. Others believe they are under God’s wrath because of pre-christian indiscretions.

Coloured Opinions

Many have their belief skewed by a cruel, insensitive or disinterested parent, and they struggle with the fatherhood of God and disbelieve the Word of truth.. with God as a loving Father. The trauma and pain of life has caused many to colour their opinions of God, and failure of trusted loved ones – have built up distrust of His Word of Truth.

Erroneous Thoughts

This is not the exception. It is rather the rule of life that has influenced us all. We are all guilty of some distortion of God’s truth – some error in our thinking. We are all guilty – just as surely as each of us nailed Christ to the Cross.

Mental Images

I am no better than you and I am no worse that you, but the way we distort God’s character are just different. You’re no more guilty of an inaccurate mental image of God than I, or vice versa. We both twist God’s character in different ways. But our own distortions are unique to our own particular life-journey, and each, must recognise any erroneous thoughts of God that we have built-up.

Proud Perceptions

Each must be prepared to humble our proud perceptions, and confess our foolishness. Each of us on our life journey, have sought to understand the incomprehensible. I believe we must put away the erroneous opinions that we’ve developed of God. We must see Him as He is – not through the sinful lens of our own imagination.

Twisted Truth

We are forgiven – yes indeed, and as pure and innocent as the Lamb that was slain. Let us never forget what He has done for us – and Who He actually is. But we live in a sinful world, and battle against the thoughts of the flesh each day. It is the enemy directly, or indirectly, that has taken what is God and twisted it.

Sovereign God

Let us each seek to discover in our hearts if we have distorted of God’s character, and let us seek to correct our erroneous imaginings and recover the truth of God. For He alone is Holy, He alone is the Lord. He alone is the Self-Existent One, the Self-Sufficient One, the Sovereign One.

Attributes of God

He alone is Divinely Omniscient, Divinely Omnipotent and He alone is Divinely Omnipresent. He alone is Faithful and Just and Holy and He alone is Gracious and Good and True and Loving – and He chose You to be His bride, before the foundation of the world…

Truth of God

Recently as I ‘happened’ across this short video. In it there are 0ne hundred names of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. One Hundred examples of the truth of Who God undeniably is. If we were to take just ONE name each day and prayerfully focus on that truth… if we were to reflect on ONE attribute daily – in gratitude, honour praise and thanksgiving… if we were to meditate on ONE characteristic each day – in deepest humility of heart, I believe any and all of our distortions would be replaced with a deeper knowledge and understanding of Him.

Knowledge of God

I believe, we would like Job, abhor ourselves and repent in dust and ashes, crying: “I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee..” (with spiritual understanding) and we’d discover that our hearts had been ‘reprogrammed’ to know Him .. to know Him as He is…. and be able to say….