Hopefully you guys (my faithful readers) aren’t becoming bored with reading mostly about my thoughts rather than what is physically happening in my life. Let me just tell you, my spiritual life and thought life is much more interesting than my daily physical life. Despite that, I am content with my physical life and find a lot of joy and pleasure in it. Simply there isn’t a lot going on in it that is really worth sharing. With that said, let me dive in.
God Incomprehensible
“Our Father, we know that Thou art present with us, but our knowledge is but a figure and shadow of truth and has little of the spiritual savor and inward sweetness such knowledge should afford. This is for us a great loss and the cause of much weakness of heart. Help us to make at once such amendment of life as is necessary before we can experience the true meaning of the words ‘In thy presence is fulness of joy.’ Amen.” – A. W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy
I heard somewhere recently that the greatest form of worship is wonderment. And I agree with this. It is when I truly contemplate on God that I begin to see how truly great He is; how truly unfathomable He is. It is in light of this wonderment and awe that I am humbled. And am also filled with peace and joy and overflowing gratefulness. For this reason I’ve begun to try and get a finite grasp on this infinite God whom loves me and whom I love.
God himself commands us not to create images of Him. This is because any image we think of or create will completely fail at capturing who God is in His entirety. Despite this I also believe God enjoys when we wonder at His greatness and try to understand what He is like. God is not like anything because He is unique. But I believe there is a fitting analogy between the Sun and God (an analogy to which I keep returning). The Sun is unique, powerful, and the source of all life. God is all of these things as well. I cannot look long at the sun without being forced to avert my gaze. I cannot imagine gazing upon God. Even a small glimpse of His perpetual glory would be enough to destroy my dark and defiled self. Only His mercy would keep me from destruction.
I recently read Knowledge of the Holy and am now reading Knowing God. They both mention that it’s impossible to fully know what and who God is; but we can know what He has revealed to us. It’s humbling to know that even all knowledge a human can possess of God falls infinitely short of His splendor and majesty. After acknowledging how incomprehensible He is they dive into many of the wonderful (causing wonder) attributes of God such as the Trinity, self existence, eternity, infinitude, immutability (unchanging-ness), omnipresence, omniscience, sovereignty, etc.
God wants a relationship with every one of us comparably insignificant beings. He gave this honor and privilege to Adam and Eve, yet they rebelled and the relationship has been scarred for all people. Yet even in our defiled and rebellious state God longs to adopt us into His family.
“I thought to myself, ‘I would love to treat you as my own children!’ I wanted nothing more than to give you this beautiful land, the finest possession in the world. I looked forward to your calling me ‘Father,’ and I wanted you never to turn from me.” Jeremiah 3:19
What an amazing God indeed we have. Amazing and utterly beyond us in all ways. I find myself agreeing with Frederick W. Faber more and more:
“Only to sit and think of God,
Oh what a joy it is!
To think the thought, to breathe the Name
Earth has no higher bliss.”
Jesus: The Embodiment of God
When speaking of who God is, it’s impossible for me not to think of Jesus. He is the embodiment of God; He is the Word made flesh. The Son has renewed the relationship that the Father established, by defeating sin and death. I think of the stories of Jesus and I can’t help but fall more and more in love with our God. His encounters with the women at the well; the woman caught in adultery; the tax collectors and sinners; the children; and His own disciples; they all fill me with hope for I can relate. I am sick; I am lost; I am blind; I am broken. Through Jesus I am healed; I am found; I see; and I am restored.
One of the stories that stands out the most to me is that of the rich young man found in Mark 10:17-22:
As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
“Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, you shall not defraud, honor your father and mother.’”
“Teacher,” he declared, “all these I have kept since I was a boy.”
Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.
This man probably would have claimed to know God; he had kept all of God’s commandments since his youth. And yet God saw through his pride; into his heart; and into that area of the man’s life that he was keeping for himself. God wants it all. God wants me to surrender all I have to Him for His glory. He doesn’t want perfection. He wants dedication. And when I fail He will be there to lift me up.
This man knew God to some extent but He didn’t truly know God because he was keeping some of his life for himself. Yet Jesus saw through that; knew him fully (all of his commitment and reluctance); and loved him in spite of his faults. He then called him to step out and fully commit to a life dictated by God’s will.
This story shows a lot of things, but one is that it is important to know God; but it is of infinite more importance that God knows you. I think of all my life; all the good and all the bad, especially the bad. I’m afraid what people would think of me if they could see my whole life in it’s entirety. God does see my entirety; all that I have done and all that I will do; all my sins and shortcomings and misconceptions about myself (namely that I am worthy of His love) and He still loves.
My pride abounds. Not externally most of the time; but I am proud internally. I feel that I am mostly good; that my strengths and piety make up for my few weaknesses. Sometimes I even think that were I God that I would love Ethan Sherrell too, for he’s such a good guy. Such pride I have. My sin is great; overwhelming and frightening like the highest mountain. Yet praise God His love is greater; like the awe-inspiring infinite unknown of the beautiful night-sky in which the mountain isn’t even a drop in the ocean!
God: He Who Knows Me
Thou hidden love of God, whose height,
Whose depth unfathomed, no man knows,
I see from far Thy beauteous light,
Inly I sigh for Thy repose;
My heart is pained, nor can it be
At rest till it finds rest in Thee.
– Gerhard Tersteegen
As great and beneficial and God pleasing it is for us to begin to learn who God truly is, that is not what matters in the end. What truly matters is that God knows me. My soul longs to be known. I strive to fill that longing with whatever I can get my hands on. But nothing fills that gap in my soul. My infinite desire to receive mirrors God’s infinite desire to give. God is the only infinite one and thus the only one who can fill my infinite desire to receive. It is in Him only that I can find rest.
Therefore: “What matters supremely is not that I know God but that He knows me. I am graven on His palms; I am never out of His mind. I know Him because He knows me. There is no moment when His eye is off me, or attention distracted, no moment when His care falters.
“There is unspeakable comfort in knowing that God is constantly watching over me for my good. There is tremendous relief in knowing that His love to me is based off of the prior knowledge of the worst about me. He is not disillusioned about me as I am often disillusioned about myself. There is humility and incentive to worship in the fact that He sees all of the twisted things inside of me, some which even I don’t know, and yet for unfathomable reason desires for my friendship and love.” – J.I. Packer, paraphrase from Knowing God
Unfathomable it truly is. Words cannot describe the honor that God has bestowed on us in making us His sons and daughters. He has adopted us into His family, freed us from the chains of our sin, and is making us like Himself. He promises us riches, glory, and joy beyond compare if only we would humble ourselves and live as His servants. And there is joy and glory in being a servant of God!
“The action of God in taking Joseph from prison to become Pharaoh’s prime minister is the picture of what He does to every Christian: from being Satan’s prisoner, he finds himself transferred to a position of trust in the service of God. At once life is transformed. Whether being a servant is a matter for shame or for pride depends on whose servant one is. Many have said what pride they felt in rendering personal service to Sir Winston Churchill during the Second World War. How much more should it be a matter of pride and glorying to know and serve the Lord of heaven and earth!” – J.I. Packer, Knowing God
