What Is God Like?

What is God like?

How our ideas of God impact our life

If you had to describe what God was like to someone… how would you do it? What words come to mind? How does God behave? What are some of God’s defining characteristics? What does God look like? Sound like?

On the surface this might sound like a meaningless and trivial exercise. God is God. It would also be pretty easy to plug in any number of random cliche statements about the nature of God. So why am I bothering you with these questions? I think how we view God is foundationally important. How we view God changes the way we live!

When I was younger I had an image of God in my head that was destructive. God was there to punish wrongdoings. He was waiting for me to do or say the wrong thing so he could smite me. I remember going to church for the first time as a teenager and joking (kinda) that I would burst into flames the second I walked into the building. I was impure, a sinful mess, and therefore nothing would bring God more joy than to watch me burn.

Things only got worse after I became a Christian! My early views of God were extremely transactional. If I did bad things, bad things would happen to me. If I did good things… then God would work in my favor. I remember thinking that if I were about to do something big and important… I needed to clean up my life for a week or so before hand. So if I wanted to ask a girl out on a date, I should probably not cuss much that week so I can get the favor of God and get the date I so desperately wanted. When those dates were declined… it must have been something sinful in my life that led to that heartbreak. I would go through the same mental exercise for most things, from tests to work functions.

All of this created a spiritual life that viewed God as some jerk in the sky that I was endlessly stuck trying to impress and constantly failing. I became insecure and constantly questioned my standing with God.

Here is why this matters. If you were to ask me the questions above, I would have answered them with all the cliches I was expected to give. Who is God? God is love! The problem is… on a functional level… I am not sure I really believed it. The issue was that God was so large and I was so small. I would read scripture and find all sorts of things that fueled the flame of my guilt. Passages like Exodus 20:5 that says “for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me.” I would read through the Old Testament and get so lost trying to figure things out.

So what changed? To put it simply… Jesus.

I remember diving into Hebrews 1 and having an “aha!” moment where things just kinda made sense. Hebrews 1:1-4 says this: “In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. So he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs.”

This was a game changer for me. In the past God spoke to us indirectly… but now through Jesus the guessing game is over! No longer did we have a middle man trying to make sense of things! We have all we need in Christ! The clouds have been blown away and we can clearly see just who God is by looking at the way Jesus acted, spoke, and did life.

So who is God? The best way to answer that question is by looking at the way Jesus lived! In Jesus we find grace! I found myself challenging a lot of the baggage I had picked up over my life. The things that once felt so complicated were now so much easier. I could feel the weight lift off my shoulders!

So, what is God like? What does that mean for the way you live your life? Let’s spend some time diving into Jesus as we explore who He is and the way He behaves!