Loving the true God
I planned to post this last week, but since Dave and I have been staying at a friend's place to help with their animals I have had little time at home!
It is easy to love the parts of God's character that are currently approved of in our culture, or which make us feel good. We may think of God as kind, loving, gracious and forgiving. This is what many non-Christians think as well. If we are to love the true God, we have to embrace other parts of his character that are less popular. God is not only loving, he is also angry with sin. He takes sin so seriously that he caused his own son to die on the cross so that we would not have to bear the punishment for it. Choosing to ignore sin, as we commonly do, was not an option for God.
In the early years of my Christian life I chose to focus on parts of God's character I agreed with. I embraced his forgiveness but rejected his sovereignty . As I understood more about God's word, I realised that I cannot pick and choose the "nice" parts of God's character. Our God is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The Lord of Hosts who destroys his enemies. The LORD who remembers every idle word we speak. We can take him as he is, or we can make up a god who is more to our liking. Either way, he remains the LORD and his character is unchanging.
The same sort of thing happened to me, where I used to play "pick and choose" with God's attributes. I finally realized how dangerous that is, and really how it's a form of idolatry, loving who I've imagined God to be, rather than who He is.
Interestingly, enough, regarding His sovereignty, none of God's promises or other attributes (goodness, holiness, etc.) can really be comforting without His sovereignty. So why do we always want to mitigate that attribute? Not sure, except definitely our desire to be in a bit more control, and to have some pat answer for evil?
Amen! I am currently studying various Scriptures as outlined in my Women of Faith Bible (new king james version) on the topic: the Sovereignty of God. It has been an excellent study! I've posted some thoughts on it and hope to do some more in the near future. I was the other way as a teen: I focused on God as the Judge, the Man whom I could never please....until...freedom! I think it was from being in a somewhat legalistic church, among other issues...but..praise the Lord...I came to know His mercy and grace for real!
I agree Susan, that we downgrade God's other attributes when we attempt to reduce the impact of his sovereignty.
That is a good point, Faith. We can be prone to overemphasising God's anger or judgement as well.