Day 2

Allow me to offer some suggestions that I believe will help develop a good, righteous view of who God is. First, choose faith. As the writer of Hebrews states, a *“faith that shows the reality of what we hope for,”* though we cannot see it (Hebrews 11:1).

Arthur Pink, *The Attributes of God*, writes, “God is only truly known in the soul as we yield ourselves to Him.” Just because you may not like what is happening to you does not mean you have to surrender what God is doing in you.

You see, we cannot correctly view God in and of ourselves; we need help. Thus, we must ask the Holy Spirit to help us view God correctly and identify the lies we may have believed up to this point. “We must learn to measure ourselves,” theologian J. I. Packer writes in his book *Knowing God*, “not by our knowledge about God, not by our gifts and responsibilities in the church, but by how we pray and what goes on in our hearts.”

God is not some cosmic killjoy, or a great bully; nor is He some divine Santa Claus or celestial vending machine where we get to pull a lever and out comes what we so desire. So often, we do not recognize that our view of God is out-of-sorts – skewed at best.

Allow me to offer something that can be incredibly helpful. Make a list with three columns. In the first column, write words that come to mind when you think about God. In the second column, give an example of how you reflect these truths in your life. In the third column, match your words to what God says about Himself in His Word.

For example, if you say that God is good, is that only after something good happens, or does that follow the difficult times as well? What verses support that claim?

Now listen, pursuing a true view of God is not the same as understanding why He does or does not do something. God is very clear that His ways are higher than our ways (Isaiah 55:9), and thus, we must fight all temptations to reduce Him to a cause-and-effect kind of God. For God is good all the time, and all the time, God is good, regardless of whether we fully grasp that in each and every moment. For in everything God is teaching us and showing us who He is, not what we make Him to be.

This is precisely why we must always turn to the Word, because His Word provides for us the clearest description of who He is. You see, choosing to hold on to God’s Truth – aligning your thoughts to an accurate view of who God is – does not mean that our circumstances will change, but it does mean that our faith will not.

We all have a choice to align our view of God with truth, or not; and always remember, our choices influence everything.

**QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION**

1. What are the lies in your life that need to be replaced with God’s Truth?

2. How can you change your vantage point, in good times and hard times, to always see the goodness of God?

3. Pray and ask the Holy Spirit to help you identify the lies in your life and replace them with the truth of God’s Word.

*God, help me in my moments of frustration – when I don’t understand Your ways in my circumstances. I know You are good and just. May I cling to the truth of who You are. Amen.*