God Is Not Like Me

I have a really hard time, sometimes, thinking about God. God gives Himself human attributes - hands, voice, emotions, etc - throughout the Bible. Jesus even said, "Whoever has seen me has seen the Father." (John 14:9) But of course, we have no physical description of Jesus. It's not about His humanness but about His heart, His compassion, His love.

If I try to picture God, I want to make Him a better version of the best people I know, like Billy Graham or Mother Teresa. But bringing God down to human terms diminishes Him. (God is NOT like me.) The Bible tells us God lives in unapproachable light.(1 Timothy 6:15-16) He can't be compared to anyone.(Isaiah 40:25-26) He is everlasting and never grows tired.(Isaiah 40:28) His thoughts and ways are different than mine.(Isaiah 55:9) He created everything.(Isaiah 42:5)

I just can't grasp infinite, all holy, all wise, all knowing, all loving, all powerful, all merciful which God is, because I am finite and sinful. So because God is NOT like me, He needed some way for me to understand Him so He communicates with me in terms I can grasp. Sometimes that makes me think God is like me but He is not.

I have heard people say I couldn't love a God who sends people to Hell. Well, He doesn't. Send people to Hell. We send ourselves when we reject His offer of salvation. Heaven is His home and if I want to live there I need to follow the house rule (only one) which is salvation through Jesus Christ alone. My parents always had house rules that I was expected to obey as part of the family so why would I think God is cruel if He does the same thing.

God gives us opportunity to do what He asks. When the Israelites had been slaves in Egypt for 430 years, God said it's time for them to go back home. Each time Moses came to Pharaoh with the demand to let the people go, he also gave God's consequence if Pharaoh didn't comply. Pharaoh's heart was hard so he would not comply. And because God never lies, He did what He said He would do. 

When Jonah was told to go to the people of Ninevah and preach a message of repent or be destroyed, he didn't want to do it. He feared and hated these people so much that he wanted them to be destroyed. And because God never lies, when Jonah eventually preached the message and they repented, God spared them. (God was NOT like Jonah!)

Then someone might say but what about those who never hear of Jesus. I don't know but I do know that God is perfect and His justice is perfect. (God is NOT like me.) In Romans 1:18-22 Paul writes that man is without excuse. I guess my biggest problem is that sometimes I think God owes me something - like an explanation. He only owes me death because of my sin, because of my arrogance, because of my disregard of Him. But He has promised life to those who do things His way, those who accept His terms.

Once my heart was hard toward God. I wanted to live my life, my way. What a sad existence! What an empty futile life! There is more...so much more...to be found in a life fully surrendered to God.

"Therefore seek not to understand that you may believe, but believe that you may understand." St Augustine