Think Again

I remember studying the attributes of God in high school. While we knew that God can never be fully described or understood and that we, in our human finiteness, will never be able to imagine all of His attributes, we went through ten characteristics that we thought captured the essence of God the most. Like I said, I know that I will never comprehend the vastness, greatness, or mystery of God, but when we went through them so often during those high school years, I pretty much figured that I at least had those 10 down. Well, so much for that. I picked up Knowledge of the Holy, by A.W. Tozer, a couple weeks ago and began reading about the many attributes of God. Tozer begins his book by telling his readers the importance of thinking rightly about God. God is ineffable, unexplainable, incomprehensible, etc. We CANNOT allow ourselves to place Him in a box. As Tozer quoted,

"We think more loftily of God by knowing that He is incomprehensible, and above our understanding, than by conceiving Him under any image, and creature beauty, according to our rude understanding." – Michael de Molinos

So far, reading through the many attributes of God and recognizing that the 20+ explained in the book are only a small part of the character of God has certainly widened by view of God. When I said I thought I’d had those 10 attributes pretty well figured out… I was so wrong. God amazes me; daily I learn in one way, shape, or form that He is greater than I had imagined the day before, and so my learning continues.

The other day I read through the chapters regarding God’s omniscience and immutability – two characteristics we had studied in high school. When I saw the chapter names, my instinct thought was that I already knew this stuff and probably wouldn’t get much out of it this time. I have two words for you: Yeah right.

God is omniscient. He knows absolutely everything there is to know about me… including all my wickedness, my pride, my inner selfishness, my faulty actions… and yet He rains His love and grace upon me. Furthermore, He is immutable. He has always felt the same way about me – ever since before He created me and before I made such atrocious mistakes (though He knew I inevitably would), even in the midst of me making those mistakes or thinking that I have Him and His 10 attributes figured out. From the beginning of time, God has loved me with an everlasting and unquenchable love. He has always cherished me, always been captivated by me, and always will be no matter what I have done or will do. Somehow, reading this thought about God’s unchanging thoughts about me brought me comfort. He’s not going to change what He thinks about me, even when others do. And in the end, only what He thinks of me is important anyways. Jesus will always love me extravagantly… no matter what. Therein lies my comfort.

"In this world where men forget us, change their attitude toward us as their private interests dictate, and revise their opinion of us for the slightest cause, is it not a source of wondrous strength to know that the God with whom we have to do changes not? That His attitude toward us now is the same as it was in eternity past and will be in eternity to come?" – A.W. Tozer