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@ LibertyGal
2024-09-19 02:40:02Nobody alive has a high enough view of God. Our God, the true God, the God who spoke into existence time and space, matter and energy, things seen and unseen, is more awesome than our earthly minds can comprehend.
This is a very good thing. A God who is omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, and holy is a God we can trust. A God who is unfathomably complex and able to do things we can’t comprehend is a God worth worshipping.
Wrong View of God
When I first became a Christian, some of the verses about honoring and worshipping God seemed proud and self-absorbed, but I was judging God as a man. He is so far above us in every way and we owe Him our very existence. Of course He should be honored and worshipped. I judged Him as having human motives instead of omniscient, holy motives. I judged Him as just being an above average man instead of being the Creator who spoke everything, even time and space, into existence. I judged Him wrongly because I didn’t fully know Him and who He truly was. The more I learn about Him the more amazed I am at who He is and the more I realize how little I truly comprehend His awesomeness.
I serve a God that is so magnificent that we can’t fully understand who He is or the various traits He has revealed to us. Other religions worship a god that is no more than a superhero. Their gods are understandable because they are made up by people. A god that is fully understandable isn’t a god worth worshipping.
Wrong View of the Law
God has given us a law to follow. He has given us explicit laws like the ten commandments. He has given us things we must do and He has given us things we must not do. Too often we are offended by these commands. We look at every command to do something as a burden and every command to refrain from doing something as a limitation on our freedom and happiness. We only feel this way because our view of God is wrong.
We have an awesome God who loves us so much that he condescends to tell us how to live the best life we can live. He tells us not to do things that are bad for us and will harm our relationships with Him and others. He tells us to do things that will help us grow and help us build relationships with Him and others. He lets us join Him in His amazing plan for humanity. He doesn’t need us, but like a good Father, He includes us in His work and empowers us to do what we could not do on our own.
Instead of resenting God for His commands, we should be grateful that He cares enough to give them. We should be grateful that He cares enough to send Jesus to earth to show us what a perfect life looks like. We should be grateful that He has given us the laws necessary to make family and society work properly. When we obey His commands, we will be glad we did.
Wrong View of Sin
We all view our sin as less bad than it really is. We excuse that “little white lie.” We discount the harm from stealing that pencil from work. We make light of our social actions because we are conforming to the culture around us and because everyone is doing it. We talk about all of the “good” people around us and wonder why God lets “bad” things happen to these “good” people. Does anyone truly see the true horror of their sin?
We have a wrong view of sin for several reasons. First of all, we judge sin by the actions of other people. We judge one person to be a better person than another. We judge some sins, like murder, to be worse than other sins, like a lie of flattery. We don’t judge sins by their rightful measure, the word of God and the life of Jesus.
Beyond that we look at things based on whether the sin seemed to hurt someone. Of course we are only able to look at the external effects, not the effects on the heart. Truth is loving even when it hurts. That definitely doesn’t mean we should tell the truth in a hurtful way to make a person feel bad or to win, but we should tell the truth because the truth always benefits in the long run. A lie, even if it makes the person feel better today and seems to help a relationship, causes harm in the long run. It breaks trust. It leads the person on the wrong path. It hardens the liar’s heart.
Ultimately all sin is about one thing. All sin says, “my way is better than God’s way.” All sin says, “I know better than God.” All sin says, “my opinion is more important than God’s opinion.” Worst of all, all sin says, “I am god of my life and I don’t want God to rule over my life.” Sin is a denial of God and His authority.
If we have a higher view of God then we realize the gravity of our sin. This won’t mean we will never sin, but it should mean we sin much less. It should also mean we repent more because sin is idolatry. We are our own idol.
Wrong View of Hardship
So often when things go wrong in our lives, we question God. We say, “Why me? Why did you let this happen to me?”
We need to remember that God is in control. We need to remember that God loves us. We need to remember that God knows everything that is, that was, and that will be and that He looks at events differently than we do because He has an eternal perspective.
Why do bad things happen to people, especially believers? God told us
Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also. (John 15:20)
God is transforming us to be more like Jesus, so some hardship is given to us to mold us to be more like Jesus. Almost all growth in faith and holiness comes from hardship, not easy times. God knows this and gives us what is for our eternal good instead of what gives us momentary happiness. Looking back with a godly attitude, you will be able to see the good God has done through hardship and be grateful even if it was very difficult in the heat of the trials.
Sometimes God allows hardship as a punishment for sin.
For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives.” (Hebrews 12:6)
Sinning unbelievers are often allowed to continue sinning and may not seem to get their punishment here on earth. Christian sinners are more likely to be punished here on earth as a correction, to lead us back to Him and a godly life. If you are going through a hard time, ask yourself, “Is there an unconfessed sin in my life for which I am paying the consequences?” If the hardship is due to sin, usually repenting and turning from that sin will help, but even repentance and turning fully to God does not guarantee that the consequences of sin go away. It does mean that the hardship will become more bearable because everything is better and easier when you have God on your side.
Frequently hardship is preparing you for something. He may be preparing you for additional hardship. He may be preparing you for ministry. He may be preparing you for leadership. You can look at the story of Joseph. He was sold by his brothers, made a slave, tempted and then jailed when he resisted temptation, and then abandoned in jail by those he had helped. I’m sure there were moments when Joseph doubted God. Joseph stayed faithful, but he went through severe hardships for decades. God, however, knew what He was doing. He was preparing Joseph to save the people of the Middle East and beyond. God was moving Joseph from a place far from the seat of power to a place where he could speak God’s word to Pharaoh, the most powerful man in the world at that time. Joseph didn’t know what God was doing, but he stayed faithful and God blessed him immensely.
You may not be made second in charge of the most powerful country in the world, but God has a plan for your life. You have been blessed by the Creator God to be used for His purpose. He will put you through what you need to go through to prepare you for His earthly plans and to prepare you for Heaven. Trust me, it will be so worth it.
Knowing who God is and that He loves us can enable us to go through these hard, desperate times. When we trust God, we don’t just barely make it through, we can thrive and go through horrible circumstances with joy because:
And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. (Romans 8:28)
When we start to get a right view of God, everything is better. We can understand the truth in God’s word and in the world more correctly. We know that our loving God controls everything throughout history with ultimate wisdom. We know that everything happens for a very good reason.
When we start to get a right view of God, it is like the sun coming out from behind a cloud. Everything is clear and bright and joyful.
Trust Jesus.\ \ your sister in Christ,
Christy
Bible verses are NASB (New American Standard Bible) 1995 edition unless otherwise stated