What is God like?

Imagine giving a Blackberry Porsche to an old grandmother in the village, because she does not know or fully understand what it is for, she would not put it to good use. You should not be surprised if she uses it as a candle stand. Many of us are far worse than that; because we do not understand who and what God really is; we use him for far less than a candle stand.

A person is to you the much you know about them. We usually are wrong when we try to know people from afar. We make the same error when we try to think we know God and we are distant from him. We assume a lot of things about God, most time we are wrong. The knowledge of who God really is key to Christian life. If we are God’s children, then we are to exhibit his attributes, characters, actions, attitudes, and His approach to things. We cannot be children of God and not be like Him.

What is God like? In answering this question, God’s attributes includes but not limited to: "God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth, all-sufficient, incomprehensible, everywhere present and knowing all things.  God is good, meaning that "God is the final standard of good, and all that God is and does is worthy of approval." God’s attribute is limitless.

God is much ‘bigger’ than we in every sense are. Therefore, we can never completely describe him or understand him. It would be like a slug trying to understand Einstein’s theories to expect us to understand God.

Some things about God only apply to him, other aspects of God we share in as beings who were created in his image. God is glorious, majestic perfection and utterly different to us in this way. He is infinite, without beginning, end, or any limitation at all. He is self-existent, not dependent on anyone for anything. He is consistent and unchanging, so always remains dependably the same as he relates to us. God is sovereign. He rules over all and is the final cause of all that happens in his universe. He is everywhere and knows everything.

God is holy. He is utterly pure and perfect and therefore utterly against evil, deceit, injustice and wrong doing. Because God is perfectly righteous he judges and punishes all that is wrong. God is good. He is loving, merciful and compassionate. God is complex and yet all these characteristics exist together perfectly in harmony. Jesus, the Son of God, reveals God to us perfectly. In Him we see compassion as he cares for the lost and needy. We also see his anger against hypocrisy and false religion. We see in his death the very moment when God’s justice against wrongdoing meets God’s mercy for those who need forgiveness.

God is holy, just and true in every way. These are just a few of what we call God’s moral attributes. We cannot understand Him without recognising how His attributes are related to moral beings. God is not only great, He is good too. The Bible is full of expression of God’s nature. We must allow our hearts to meditate on who He is and yield our lives to Him in these areas in order to receive the wonderful blessings He has for us. Communion with God is important to our spiritual growth. The more we know about our great God, the more we should love and revere Him, and become more like Him. When we pray and meditate on God’s word, we give Him opportunities to teach us.