part 2 of "Good God" series
I want to start this post off with a participation activity. If you are you willing to participate, take a second and ponder the following question. If you could make a god you would believe in what would he be like? Go ahead. Take a second. Think about it.
As you have a list compiled, if you chose to make one, maybe you have similar things in your list that are listed below.
“My God would be really good.
• My God would always forgive me for messing up.
• My God would heal people who are sick.
• My God wouldn’t be boring but fun.
• My God wouldn’t allow bad things to happen.
• My God wouldn’t send people to hell.
• My God would give his people superpowers to fight evil.
• My God wouldn’t get mad at me if I failed, and he would always love me.
• My God would get rid of death so that people could live forever.” [1]
The thing is that when people are asked to put together a list of what and who they want their god to be - they come out on the other end having created a list that might describe their god - but it also describes the God. Let’s look at the list above again and see what I mean.
The first thing on the list is - “my God would be really good.” The reason why this usually makes the list that people create is because they feel that is a trait that the existing God lacks. But that isn’t the case. God is good. God has always been good. God will always be good. But I know in the midst of trials and tribulations it can be hard to believe. There are also parts of the Bible where it seems that God is just not very good at all. But I urge you to continue on with me through the entirety of this series and maybe we all can see things a little bit differently at the end.
The second thing on the list is true as well. God always is ready and willing to forgive us and to wash us clean of all sin. But the key point is that we need to confess those things to God so that He can forgive them (1 John 1:9).
The third thing I want to look at from that list is about God being fun. God is fun. God wants us to have all the fun in the world (John 10:10). I would say that if God is not fun then we might be looking at it wrong. Maybe it is us who is boring. For me, I know that there are things that I want to do, that look fun and exciting, but they aren’t good for me. So that encourages me to look for other things to do and find my fun. As a parent and having been raised the same way this is what I teach my kids as well. And because of it, I sometimes get the “You’re boring!” or “You never let me do anything fun!” But they usually find something fun to do. This is also how we treat God who is described and often referred to as a Father. We peg Him as boring and how He never lets us do anything fun. When we just need to look for something fun to do.
There are more on this above that I will get to over the next few posts because they fit better later on in the series.
But I hope that you can see what happens when we try and create a God that we want to exist. We build this God up in our heads and we can lose track of the real God and who He is. We begin to compare and contrast the real God to the god that we have created. Then we get mad and upset at the real God when He doesn’t act like the god we have made him to be. And in reality, the DIY god that we have created, isn’t really different from the one true God. So I encourage you - get to know the real God as best as you can and leave the DIY one behind.
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[1] Good God: The One We Want to Believe but Are Afraid to Embrace by Lucas Miles, “Copyright © 2016 by Lucas Miles
Published by Worthy Books, an imprint of Worthy Publishing Group, a division of Worthy Media, Inc., One Franklin Park, 6100 Tower Circle, Suite 210, Franklin, TN 37067.
WORTHY is a registered trademark of Worthy Media, Inc. HELPING PEOPLE EXPERIENCE THE HEART OF GOD. eBook available wherever digital books are sold.”
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