I can think of God as merely being some kind of super human being, more loving, and forgiving, but in the long run really not much different than I am.
In other words I tend to make God into my image and likeness, which again can be hurtful to my prayer life and my intimacy with God. When I do this I take away from the “otherness” of God, from the infinite nature of His love, and then God can also take on my dark side.
When this happens, the love of God is not experienced as infinite, but his anger and wrath are. Since fear and trust cannot exist side by side, trust is lost and my relationship suffers, since intimacy with someone who is not trustworthy is impossible.
All that can be done is to placate the one feared. Prayer becomes a way of keeping God at a distance, instead of drawing me deeper into a loving, and trusting relationship.
Have you ever thought of God in your image rather than of yourself in God's image? How does this impact the way you view God?
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Comments (4)
Saint Thomas Aquinas gives the best description of God ever, in my opinion.
In his book, "Summa Theologica" he uses Aristotelian thinking and Revelation to reason out the attributes of God based on His nature.For God to be God, he must have certain attributes. Aquinas names and describes those attributes of God which are knowable.
Knowing things is much better for our well being than blindingly believing in dogma.
To pacify, or appease GOD is stupid...sorry, but you asked...
HE's our Father/Dad...HE's our Creator...HE's our Master, Boss, Chief...whom we love & worship...there's absolutely no need to pacify HIM, simply serve HIM...& stay in continual contact, as the things of this strange world, rapidly are progressing straight down to eternal damnation my friend...
Remember, it won't be long now, till we will actually see HIS beautiful face, so chin up...soon we will be home !
If we think of God as being like us, it's easy. The Christ was indeed like us, in form, and in thought. So God understands our ways of thinking and operating, and the fear aspect is taken away.
It is easy to see the Lord has human... He was as Jesus. But it is imperative that we see Him as Divine. He sees things far beyond what we do. We tend to be short sighted and He is eternally sighted.
Being a parent to three people (oldest is now 30) I know that there are things you do to and for your child that neither of you like but is necessarily for life. Our Heavenly Father is a MUCH better parent then I will ever be. One thing that is hard to do at times, even at age 52...is to admit, I'm still a very young child to my Abba.
But God actually requires us to "become as little children" if we are to enter into Heaven- Matthew 18:3. Our culture teaches us to become mature & independent adults but Jesus requires the opposite- to be as a little child and dependent on Him. Needless to say, Humility is hard to find today.
One thing I have learned over the years though, is when things get tough, remember what He did for us at the Cross and Why. He has a vested interest in getting us Home to Heaven and when you suddenly realize what kind of love it takes for Him to do that- the trusting begins to come a little easier.
Want to get close to the cross? Read Psalm 22. That is a 1st person account of what Jesus actually felt on the cross. What is even more stunning is that the Psalms was written during the time of David and that was 27 generations before the birth of Jesus and it doesn't stop there- God knew even before at the time of Adam what was going to happen at the cross. Yet He planned for it - predicted in and went through with it- even knowing the cost!
To know God, is to know real Love and that makes it possible to trust Him.