If we often picture God as being like the people we grew up with, or the people we are around, how does this affect of view of him?
“I didn’t trust God for years,” my friend says.
We are sitting outside overlooking a river.
“Nor did I trust men,” she confides. “My dad left when I was very young. And then a string of men cycled through my childhood. Some staying longer than others, but all leaving and going away.”
How about you? Do you view God through the lens of past human relationships? Because this is normal. We view our present and future through our past experiences.
“I didn’t even trust my husband,” she adds.
“So, what happened to change your view?” I ask.
“My husband wasn’t like the other men. If he said he would do something, he often did it. Still, I doubted him, kept waiting for him not to be trustworthy. After years, I realized that I was still doubting him, still expecting him to not be someone I could trust. I realized I was projecting my dad and the other men onto my husband. Seeing him unfairly. And that I had done the same with God.”
“And things changed?”
“Slowly I gained trust in my husband. I would remind myself that he was not my dad, that he had kept his word in the past. I also did the same with God.”
How our past influences our views of God.
Maybe you can relate with my friend. I know I can.
For years I saw God as someone like my mother, the church I grew up in, and our family rules.
Which means I believed lies about God.
Some ideas came from the way my parents raised me and treated me. Some came from our church. And many came from how I interpreted life and what happened to me. All influenced the ways I saw God, understood him, treated myself and others, and how I approached life.
At church I learned legalism and how to keep all the rules (which promotes judging and condemnation, because you can see if others are doing what they should be doing). I absorbed the message that I had to earn God’s love. To do for God so he would do for me.
From my family I learned I was a number. One of six kids. My job was to please my mother if I wanted her love and approval. Making the family look good was very important. We were told what to think and feel and then shown that our thought, feelings, and emotions were not important. I learned that I was only important if I was doing the right thing and what was expected of me.
Now I could not have put most of this into words years ago. I wouldn’t have said that we needed to make the family look good, yet I lived it out unknowingly. Nor did I know that there was any different way until I got older and had a frame of reference to see that not everyone’s family was like this. That there were other ways.
We accept what is normal as normal.
Now I don’t want to throw my mom under the bus, because like everyone of us, she was doing the best she could with her background, knowledge, view of God, and life. She taught us many good things, like being moral, helping others, and sharing with others.
God is never like how we imagine him to be.
What I you to understand is that God doesn’t treat us like our family did. Our friends did. The bully did. The unhealthy church did.
Not does he treat us like our boss does. Our mate does. Our children and friends do. The cranky neighbor on the corner does.
God is totally different than any human we have met and ever will meet. He is pure love. And every action and reaction he does is done through his unconditional and perfect love for us little humans that he cares so much for.
Not because we deserve it, but because he chooses us.
Even though God loves us faithfully, pursues us, desires the best for us, is trustworthy, and full of mercy, we may not see it or feel it. Because we are often viewing him through our past hurts, relationships, family dynamics, and experiences. And we are interpreting his actions and words through our own past perceptions.
But thinking he is untrustworthy, never makes him untrustworthy.
Just like someone thinking you have green hair when you have brown hair, does not make it so.
Ask him to convict you and help you see the true him. To challenge the false views you have of him.
It’s a process. With time we will see him more clearly. But try as we might, we will always have false views of him. And he knows this.
Think of Jesus though, he didn’t confront people and try to change their false views others had about him with accusatory words and confrontations with others (like we do sometimes). Instead, he loved and served others, quietly going about his Father’s business.
He is still doing the same thing with you and me.
Remember when He sat at the well with the Samaritan women offering her living water and gently asking her questions to convict her. He is still doing the same thing today for you and me.
Our human inclination is to see God through our own filter, but if we do, we miss seeing him in his glory.
Let it be our goal to see him a little more accurately with every passing day, month, and year.
We will never truly see all of God, how truly awesome, magnificent, loving, and mysterious he is. Not until our next life. But we can view him clearer and clearer through our dirty, smudged glasses if we keep wiping those glasses.
Remember: God does not treat us like others have in the past, how others are treating us now, or how others will treat us in the future.
Theresa
I am excited to introduce you to a new book: Faith Talk. Put together by Heather Heart from Candidly Christian. It is written by a number of contributing authors answering these two questions: 1. Why do you believe in Jesus, and 2. Why is faith important to you? Each chapter will help you see how the gospel is at work in your life.
As a contributor to the book, I wrote about how my foundational beliefs about God have changed through the years. How I don’t have to earn God’s love, but that he freely gives it.
Right now, the Kindle version is free on Amazon. So, download it.
Someone who comments on this post will receive a free copy of Faith Talk.
Join the discussion: How has your view of God changed? Or, how have people influenced your view of God? (One free copy of Faith Talk will be sent to a random commenter.)
May link up at Maree Dee (#Grace & Truth), Anita Ojeda (#inspirememonday), InstaEncouagements ((IE Link-Up), and Jeanne Takenaka (#tellhisstory).
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Theresa, good morning! I love that we can’t put God in a box … He is so far beyond anyone human person or description. And I appreciate how you’ve shared the challenge many of us have walked into in seeing Him through human lenses.
He understands.
Linda, yes God is to complicated to put in a box. He does understand. It’s exciting that one day we will see him and know him better than we do now with our human lenses.
This is a beautiful truth, Theresa, “God is totally different than any human we have met and ever will meet. He is pure love.” Congratulations on your contribution in the new book. I look forward to reading it.
Thanks Lisa. I am so glad for that truth. I can relax and know he is not going to be treating me differently depending on the day or his mood.
I think this concept is such an important thing for each of us to understand, but still seek truth from scripture on who God is. Interesting read.
Lauren. It is from the scriptures that we really learn about him and begin to see him. Without them, we would not have much of a picture to go on.
Theresa, I was brought up in legalism too, it took me many years before I truly learned who Jesus was, and He can’t be put in a legalism box. You know, it’s a blessing that God isn’t who we thought He would be.
I agree, Donna, so glad God turned out to be different than who we were told he was. One of my joys is learning more about him.
Theresa, this is such a powerful post. Thinking God is untrustworthy doesn’t make Him untrustworthy. Wow. And that applies to every other incorrect thing we think about God based on how people in our lives have behaved or talked. Thank you for the encouragement to “let it be our goal to see him a little more accurately with every passing day, month, and year.” (P.S. Although my heart ached as I read about your upbringing, I was interested to read that you are one of six children because I am the sixth of seven myself. 😊)
Hi Lois. I love how God never stops revealing himself to us, if we are listening. I am the oldest girl and second child of six. It was quite fun to have so many siblings. There was always someone to do something with. I don’t think I was ever alone in the house by myself until I was 18 or so. I came home from work, realized I was the only one in the house, and it was a first. And it felt strange. 🤣
This may sound odd, but for a long time I didn’t trust God. I trusted Jesus, who died for me, but I saw God as my earthly father. I saw Him as stern and just waiting to tell me when I messed up and generally caring enough to show up. All my life, though, God has been showing me who I am in Him and that I can trust who He says He is, which is nothing like I had thought.
Ashley, I don’t think your view is odd. I think many of us believe similar things. Thankfully God understands and slowly brings us around to the truth. I think we will all be surprised when one day we understand how little we really knew and understood him with our limited human reasoning.
Good morning! What an inspirational blog post to read! I enjoy more and more reading blog posts related to God…are so calming and good for the soul.
Have a lovely week!
Thanks, Sinziana. Blogs about God are calming. I like the reminders and the one they point to.
Great post,Theresa! It’s so true that God doesn’t act like we would expect. It took a long time for me to realize He is not what I expected. And how wonderful that is!
Yes, Jerralea. How wonderful that is!
Theresa, such a good post. I truly don’t know how many times I have said that we can never think God is like man. We cannot frame Him through the actions and qualities of man. I remind myself and others of this very often.
It is a great reminder. We know and understand man, and our inclination is to see him through what we know. But when we do, we distort him and limit him.
Getting to know God is life-long learning! I pray to see truth as I know my filters can cloud what is the Truth. Learning that God’s love does not have been earned is one of the God’s characteristics that I continually need to remind myself of with His truth.
I think that is a lie so many of us believe – that we have to earn or deserve God’s love. This belief also indirectly clouds so many things we think of God. It is one I remind myself of almost daily.
This is so good, Theresa! Too often we base our perception of God on people we know, but you’re right that he is like no other. “God is totally different than any human we have met and ever will meet. He is pure love.” Yes!
It’s only natural. We base things on what we know and we know about humans. It’s hard to imagine someone so different from us.
Today I met a lady who said her husband brought into their marriage a 4 foot iguana. I asked if the iguana lived in a cage. She said not really. He was to big to live in a cage in their house, so he lived in their office, which served as his cage. It’s hard to imagine an iguana roaming my house. Just like it’s hard to imagine God being so different from us humans and operating only in love. Because we haven’t yet met a human able to do this.
As a child, my father’s discipline was like a sudden thunder storm, coming out of nowhere. I don’t know how many times I stiffened and braced myself, expecting God to “zap” me when I did wrong. I’m so glad I got to know Him better through His Word.
I am so sorry, Barbara. It is hard to live with that unknowing. So when you hear that God disciplines us, of course you think of the way you were disciplined as a child. So glad you got to know him and learned that zapping us is not his style. God is so patient with us, even when we have the wrong opinion of him.