God is who He says He is

“This is what the LORD says – Israel’s King and Redeemer, the LORD Almighty: ‘I am the first and I am the last; apart from me there is no God.’” Isaiah 44:6

“This is what the LORD says – your Redeemer, who formed you in the womb: ‘I am the LORD, who has made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who spread out the earth by myself…’” Isaiah 44:24

“I am the LORD, and there is no other; apart from me there is no God.” Isaiah 45:5a

“I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the LORD, do all these things.” Isaiah 45:7

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:8-9

“Yet, O LORD, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.” Isaiah 64:8

If God is who HE says He is, then it would be correct to assume that He is not who WE say He is. Simply put, He is God, and we are not. For those of us who would call ourselves Christ followers, we must arrive at this ultimate truth. In doing so, we are humbling ourselves, relinquishing control, and submitting ourselves to the authority of God’s Word. What does all of that mean? It means that each and every one of us has the tendency to approach the Bible, faith, and God with our own presuppositions and past experiences. Based on things that have happened to us or how we’ve been taught to believe, we come to the table of faith with preconceived notions of who God is, and often times these notions couldn’t be any further from the truth. Because we believe God is loving (which He is), we refuse to believe or accept that there would be some who will reject Him and thus forfeit eternity with Him. We believe that God is good (which He is) and therefore we reject any and all talk of Hell and eternal punishment. Or perhaps, we take the opposite route – if God is sovereign (in control of all things) and good (and He is both), why does He allow suffering? And although we may have the best intentions, we end up imposing characteristics on God based on our worldview and not on Scripture. We reject anything that isn’t palatable in relation to God’s character, and we project these man-made gods that we’ve created in our own image. The uncreated One suddenly has become created and recreated over time. The potter suddenly becomes the clay in our hands, and we shape Him into whatever suits us best. How incredibly arrogant of the clay to assume the rights of the potter.

God tells us in His Word that His ways are far different from our own, therefore we can assume that there will be many times when we simply don’t understand why things are the way they are. That, in no way, causes God to be any less good. In other words, my circumstances never alter God’s character. He determines who He is, not you and not me.

In faith, can we choose to embrace that His goodness, His sovereignty, His justice, His mercy, His wrath, His grace, and His love equally co-exist within Himself? It doesn’t need to make sense to you in order for it to be true. Truth is what is. Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and no once comes to the Father except through Him. God is who He says He is. Embrace that today and find peace.