“What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” —A.W. Tozer
God is infinite and holy and we are neither. That means it is not possible for us to understand God fully. As the apostle Paul says, “For now we see in a mirror dimly” (1 Corinthians 13:12). But that does not mean we cannot understand God accurately. We must, because it is indeed the most important thing about us. And we can, because God has revealed Himself in the Bible, which the Holy Spirit helps us understand.
One of the ways we can rightly understand God’s character is by noting what He is not. Here are three such things:
God is not Random. Jesus came “when the fullness of time had come” (Galatians 4:4), and He will return, not on some random Tuesday in the future, but on the exact day God has chosen; for specific reasons, He has chosen that date. The same is true of the events of our lives. Some appear random to us, but because God is completely wise and sovereign over all things, He has a purpose for every event just as He does for every grain of sand He created. Everything has been handcrafted by God for His glory and for our good.
Sometimes it looks like God, in His will for our lives, wastes things like time, money, opportunities, or education. I have a friend who was a classically trained pianist before God called her and her husband to serve in a remote village as missionaries. She wondered if all that training had been a waste of time, but she learned that God wasted none of it. God sees things from an eternal, spiritual perspective, and He wastes nothing. His ways are above our ways.
God is never Late. When you pray for something you need, don’t you pray with increasing fervency as you get closer to the actual time of need? And doesn’t that draw you closer to the Lord? I suspect that pleases the Lord and may be why He delays His answer. God told Abraham he would be a father of many nations, but waited until Abraham and Sarah were old before fulfilling that promise. For years it seemed He waited too long. The same for Jesus’ friend Lazarus. By the time Jesus arrived, he was already dead. If Jesus had shown up “on time,” one of His greatest miracles would have been unnecessary.
To know God accurately is to trust Him. He is love and He is sovereign. Praise be to God!
For His glory,
Bill Bertsche
Executive Pastor
