Three Characteristics of God Every Heart Needs to Know
I think the world would look drastically different if most people knew who God really is, and the nature of his thoughts, intentions, and his heart toward us. So many of us are either raised with no religious upbringing — deriving our concept of God from hearsay — or have experienced a religion full of rules and rituals, instead of love and truth. Of all the many disappointments and injustices life brings, the biggest tragedy just might be for any person to walk this life without knowing God personally. The good news is God does everything possible to get our attention and guide us back to him. He knows so many of us are lost, fearful, and struggling, even if all looks swell from the outside, and he wants nothing more than for us to experience peace and goodness. Here are some of the greatest truths about God that every heart needs to know.
He doesn’t want to change you
He just wants to better you. Before knowing God, many friends have admitted their hesitancy towards God has stemmed from fearing they’d have to change who they are, what they do with their time, and their “unholy” habits. It was hard for them to see how their personalities would fit the “Christian mold,” which is a lie we’ve been fed to make us feel ashamed and guilty around him. But when we realize God only has the best thoughts and plans for our lives, all of the habits or vices we’ve clung to slowly become less desirable. Your pride, self-consumption, and need to ‘relax’ through binging on entertainment, alcohol, shopping, etc., simply diminish as you become who you were created to be. He doesn’t want our personalities and identities to change, but he wants to expel the things that so often weigh us down — fear, ego, doubt — so we come back to the versions of ourselves we were created to be.
He’s not judging you
No wonder churches are so empty these days. Who’d ever want to hang out with someone calling you out all the time? Sadly, this is how so many view God, that he’s up there with a critical eye just waiting for us to disappoint him, or rolling his eyes with each repetitive sin: “here she goes again!” The absolute truth is that loves us, but hates sin — not because he’s sick of us messing up, but because it keeps us from being close to him, which prevents us from being truly peaceful and content. God loves us too much to leave us in our own sin, which is why Jesus stopped the adulterous woman from being stoned in John 8:11; but then also told her to “go, and sin no more.” Change and discipline often feel unpleasant and even painful in the moment, but God will never stop convicting us of wrongful thinking, behaviors, and patterns, for our own good.
He’ll never give up on you
Never. So many of us have this wrongful sense of guilt that we’ve messed up too much, or army crawled our way out of one too many sinful patterns, to the point where we’ve exhausted his grace and mercy. Such a lie. Lamentations 3:22 says his faithfulness never ends and his mercies are always new. He keeps no record of wrong. Think of the last time you experienced a great blessing and closeness with God. He knew you were gonna foul things up, or fall off the spiritual wagon just one week, month, or year later, and yet he still lavished on his goodness. The second we start believing how valued and precious we are to him, we’ll experience so much more power and victory over shame and struggles that hold us back from the victorious life that’s ours for the taking.
Copyright © 2017 Jessica Kastner. Used by permission.
