Thoughts on the nature of God

In the past, I've talked about forgiveness and the need for a resource beyond myself that enables me to forgive when it just is not within me to do that. For me, that resource is Jesus. What I believe and what I trust in affects everything I do. But what do I really believe about God? How can I know what God is like? I can't see or touch him, how do I even know he is there?

Jesus came so that I could know what God is like; he said, “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father.” Yet somehow I have a hard time grasping the truth of that. Did Jesus ever reject anyone who came to him, or refuse to heal someone? No; anyone who came asking for help, with even a little faith, was welcomed. That is how God is; the very nature of God is love and acceptance. Anything that I think God is like that Jesus is not like must be wrong. My image of God, my understanding of his nature, needs an upgrade. Everyone who receives Jesus is given the right to become a child of God—to be fully accepted into God’s family forever. Once a member of the family, always a member of the family, and yet somehow it is possible to walk away from the relationship. That's one of those paradoxes that I don't fully understand about God, but then if I understood everything about God, he wouldn't be God. My finite mind cannot completely grasp the inifinite, and I can accept that.

When I start to gain a proper understanding of God’s real nature, it changes my perspective. It is God’s very nature to love and accept me; that is why Jesus came, to make it possible for me (and anyone who follows him) to come back into relationship with God. That is God's ultimate desire, to have relationship with each one of us. There is nothing I can do to change God’s love for me—either to make him love me more or less. Regardless of what I do or don’t do, God’s love is constant and unchangeable. He already knows my deepest secrets and darkest pain, yet because of Jesus he loves me utterly and completely right where I am. Yes, he wants me to grow and to become more and more like Jesus, but even as that happens, it does not change the nature or the depth of his love.

As I begin to grasp that and not just believe it but know it deep down inside, faith wells up inside me, regardless of my circumstances. I believe the best about God, because I know that he is absolute perfect love, and he loves me absolutely and perfectly. The more I absorb this reality into my very being, the more bold I can be in stepping out to do what God asks of me, and the more freely I can give his love away. There is such absolute security in knowing that God loves me, it enables me to risk in ways that I would otherwise never dare. It puts me on a quest to know him more.

October 28, 2007