The Character of God
A few months back, I was talking to a family member that had to leave her home church and she mentioned that she missed going to Bible study. I was so excited that she wanted to be studying God’s word, I offered to help since she didn’t have a new church home yet. When I asked her where she wanted to start, she said, “Genesis.” Well, can I just tell you how less than excited I was at that? I was hoping for something other than the beginning. The creation story has always been a struggle for me. The creation story is beautiful, and it is one of the parts of scripture that leave me with a lot of questions. It definitely takes me believing by faith as I read about the creation of our world. As it turned out, I was completely blessed this time as I started at the beginning.
As I read through Genesis 1, I saw something that seemed obvious, but I had never noticed it before. Not only did I meet God the Creator, I also met God, our Provider. I have known God my provider for a long time, but this was different. I realized He was showing His character right from the beginning, and that was something I had not seen before. From the very beginning God was good and everything He made for us was good. His motives towards us were good.
God's motives towards us are good!
There has been so much decay in our world and our society, do we even know what it is like to think that God has good motives towards us?
When you read through Genesis 1, you see that God is consistent. We learn through His consistent behavior that we can trust him. He demonstrates time and time again His love for us.
We learn more about God’s character as we look in these snapshots of scripture.
To Abraham, (Gen 22:14)
To Hagar, God is the God who sees (Gen 16:13)
To Moses, God revealed His name (Exodus 3:15)
In Leviticus, we learn about God that is Holy (Lev 19:2)
We meet God as our Shepherd in Ezekiel 34: 11-15. He is the one that searches for us, He feeds us, He hems us in to protect us. He also references this idea of Him being the Shepherd in the Parable of the Lost Sheep. Are you lost? Are you separated from God? God is searching for you to bring you into the fold. He does this because of His great love for you.
Then we meet him as Father when Jesus comes onto the scene.
Jesus refers to him as Abba, Father when he is in the garden praying right before the crucifixion.
How do you feel about that name for God? Some have no problem seeing God as Father because they had a good earthly father as an example. Then there are those who struggle with identifying God as father because they did not have a good earthly father.
I can tell you that through the pages of scripture we see God as Good. No matter our earthly experiences with people; parents, priests, pastors, ministry leaders, God is still good. People who represent God may get it wrong a lot, but God is not capable of getting it wrong.
In Isaiah 61:8 we learn that God loves justice. We see in Psalm 146:7-9 how God carries out justice for those who love Him and also for those who don’t.
God tells the Israelites in Jeremiah 29:13 that when He is sought, He will be found. This is true for us as well. When we seek God, we will find Him. In Revelation, we are introduced to God as The Alpha and The Omega, The Beginning and The End. These are just examples of the goodness of God’s character that we see through scripture.
To know God is to love God, not for what He does but for who He is.
His character is faithful and true. He is Holy. He is Love. He is Just. He is Merciful. He is Provider. He is Healer. He is Judge. He is Patient. He is Kind. He is all things to all men.
To know Him will take a lifetime and more. The more we learn about God, the more we see we can trust Him.
So often we have taken the worlds idea of who God is and accepted that as truth and so often the world is wrong. God provided us with His Holy Writ so that we can know Him. He has gone to great lengths to meet us where we are because of his great love for us. God has given everyone a measure of faith so that we will seek Him. There is a place in us that remains empty until we find him.
“Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.”
God is always present, all-knowing, all-seeing, all-wise, and in my finite understanding from an earthly perspective, these things seem impossible and yet I know they are true.
Maybe you don’t know God at all. Maybe you have known Him your whole life. Maybe you are just getting acquainted with Him. I invite you all to spend some time in the pages of scripture, they are laden with accounts of who God is.
God is Good!
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