Day 66: The Character of God

This week we will dive into the character of God. We often have this image in our heads that God is some unapproachable, angry, commanding being. But that is not true, He is quite the opposite there is so much to Him that we need to learn and understand but first we have to get past our assumptions of who he is, so that we get to know Him.

1 John 4:8

Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

1 Corinthians 13:4-8

4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.

First thing to know: God is love. His character is love.

The scriptures tells us that God is love, then goes on to explain what love is. Knowing that God is love we can take all those attributes and know that they come from a God who is kind, patient and loving. The love of God is so sweet, and beautiful. We must look at God that same way. Knowing that even though He does get angry, it is never permanent, His love for us is greater than anger. God is the most loving being in the universe. How did we get from that to viewing Him as an angry old guy who doesn’t want us to enjoy life. We have it all wrong, He is anything but resentful, and judgemental, He is compassionate, kind, merciful, full of grace. God is our father, we have to treat Him like one. Everything He does, He does out of love. We have to stop listening to people tell us that if we don’t obey a set of rules God will be angry at us.

We as Christians tend to talk a lot about sin and punishment. But we forget about grace and mercy.

I went to a church where the pastor always told us to either do something a certain way or we are going to hell. Being new to my faith I believed it. I started to view God as a being that I should fear. And I did, I thought God to constantly be judging me and waiting for me to sin so that He could punish me. Everything I did was so that I would not be punished or go to hell. I was so wrong.  

-Dyamond

Fear- reverential awe, especially toward God:

We talk about the fear of God, as if we are to really fear Him in a sense of what He will do to us. This causes us to not give our all to Him. We cannot have a relationship with God is we are afraid to speak to Him. It’s hard to genuinely love someone when you are constantly afraid of what they will do to you. When the bible speaks of the fear of God, it is to mean, respect, gratitude, standing in awe of who He is. It is rooted in love. The fear of God isn’t about worrying about what God will do to us if we don’t obey, it is more about loving Him so much, and having so much gratitude and respect for Him that we don’t want to disobey Him. Or we don’t want to sin against Him because we know it will separate us from Him. Fear rooted in love, it sounds crazy but when we think about it in a biblical sense it makes sense.

God loves us so much that He is in constant pursuit of our heart, He went through drastic measures to have us near HIm again, we are His children, His babies. He holds us in His arms like a father holds his newborn child. We have to break down that wall that we put between ourselves and God, and dive into who He really is. Dive into intimacy with Him. Dive into a relationship with Him, so that we can understand His character, and see past our own assumptions and get to know God for who He really is.

Reflection

1. How do you view God?
2. Is God a scary being to you?
3. How have you been told to view God?

Prayer Time

Allow you answers to the above questions guide you prayer. Remembering that God is love and knowing the characteristics of love. Ask God to show you His character, to show you who He truly is. Ask HIm to take away the assumptions and see Him for who He is.

I love you, and I hope you have an amazing day or evening. Make sure you share this with someone and come back tomorrow for Day 67!