What God is Not!

I am participating in a new 40 day Bible study with some friends. It is "40 Days to Lasting Change, an AHA Challenge" by Kyle Idleman.

We are only on Day 3 and WOW!

I feel the need to share this....because honestly, it's what I have been saying all along. God is not a bully. He is not in Heaven keeping a record of your wrong waiting for you to screw up so He can strike you down with lightening.

God is not:

 An Unreasonable Father: The one "whose boundaries are a fence that imprisons rather than a guardrail that protects."

An Unmerciful Father: Who is "angry, borderline abusive and happily distributing punishment. Always watching and waiting for you to slip up."

An Unpleasable Father: "Unfortunately, religion uses guilt and shame to reinforce rules and presents God as unpleasable. You brought home a B on your report card, but it should have been an A. Many people grew up in a church that perpetuated these beliefs that the view that God never seemed pleased, no matter how much effort you made."

An Uncaring Father: "who wasn't there for them when they needed Him most. People think, "If He doesn't care about me, then I don't care about Him."

These views can happen if your earthly father was distant or absent. 

"God's true image is a heavenly Father who is reasonable, pleasable, merciful, and caring. His love extends beyond the boundaries of our comprehension. His efforts to reach and heal and know us broke the cosmic laws of life and death and changed the reality of the very universe for all eternity past, present and future."

Our perception from earth can cloud our view of Him.I want to encourage you to do this exercise from the book.

Get some paper. Draw a line down the middle. On the left, write what your dad was like growing up, or even now.

Then, on the right, search the Scriptures to see what God is really like. 

I will use the book's example to help you get started:

My father....                                                             But my heavenly Father....

abandoned me and was never there                   "will never leave or forsake" me (Deut. 31:8)

This is a great exercise! I highly recommend it and this book. I pray that you will see God for who He really is, and stop thinking He is like your earthly father. Because He is NOT!