What is your God like?

[Gail]

Describe your picture of God for me. You can use the Scripture that has touched your heart or memories or what you see in the church today if it contributes to your view of what God is like. 

[Gail]

I will begin:

My signature (Is. 32:17) describes the rest that I found having come out of the secular world. I remember the lost feeling, of not belonging anywhere. The Holy Spirit led me to a family of loving Christians and the Bible. In the Bible I found guidance which gave me a foundation to base my life on. The fellowship of loving believers cemented the idea of an attractive God.

Since then, what has impressed me about our Heavenly Father is that He guides me with patience and faithfulness. He has never let me down- ever.

[CoAspen]

Kinder, gentler and more loving than has been portrayed by organized religion, theology and beliefs systems. I think of Christs statement that He came not to condemn but to save. My best human equivalent......my mother, as a mother hen gathers her chicks under her wings.

[Martn]

Focusing on God without picturing anything in my mind. At all. It can be hard to do.

[JoeMo]

My God is:

“The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness,  maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin". Ex. 34:6-7)

"God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance" (Rom. 2:4)

"“Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne?  Though she may forget, I will not forget you!   See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before me" (Is. 49:15-16.)

[Gail]

2 hours ago, MCBGM said:

Focusing on God without picturing anything in my mind. At all. It can be hard to do.

From the knowledge you have, what can you use sanctified imagination to come up with?

[JoeMo]

Sometimes when I am in contemplative prayer, I imagine myself as a little boy cuddling with my Father or Jesus on His Throne with my head against His chest - listening to His heart beat.

[Martn]

1 hour ago, Gail said:

From the knowledge you have, what can you use sanctified imagination to come up with?

I experience God as pure Consciousness. Beyond all thought and things.

However, I also believe we have literal parents in the heavens. Immortal and glorious physical beings not unlike ourselves except that we are mortal. We are part of a whole race of fathers and sons of humanity which spans the universe. All filled with the One Spirit of God.

[Robert]

5 hours ago, Gail said:

Describe your picture of God for me.

"God is (agape)" I John 4:8

Agape is not an attribute of God, rather it is who God is....

[Gail]

I am so sorry for your suffering   Please don't blame yourself; this earthly life is painful.

[joeb]

My God is a God of love, but His love is not a love based in sentimentalism, but rather in principle.  That means His love is based in justice and right doing.  Love like that cannot exist without justice for to exclude justice is to exclude love.  There is no love without justice, is another way of saying it.  That means He holds all of us accountable for what we do.  It also means there is no forgiveness without repentance and forsaking the evil we did. 

This calls forth love, loyalty, honor and respect from me for it means He will treat us all justly.  It means no one has an advantage with Him, nor will He ever play favorites.   It means I can safely rely on His word, and trust fully in Him. 

[joeb]

16 hours ago, The Wanderer said:

I have wondered about your signature and why you chose it. Its nice to read an explanation and background to that.

You are fortunate to experience feeling like you belong somewhere, to a family of loving Christians. 

I seem to keep having a lot of terrible trials, and wondering why? What did I do?  What is God's problem with me?  Just read some from George Knight's "The Cross Of Christ," and now I feel even worse. I don't feel like Ill ever fit in with a church, or even this forum. God and forum members and church members always seem to be waiting around some corner to surprise me with yet another correction or punishment. And yet, in the very same breath and moment, I keep seeing the eagle of Isaiah 40:31, and "the little light" of Micah 7:18. Thats all I know.

For me, I felt exactly the same way until I found the truth of temperaments.  For me understanding that helped me to understand that just because my entire family sees me as faulty and worthless because I was born different in temperament I am still valuable in the eyes of God. 

I may never feel as if I'm a part of any family here on earth, but I know God accepts me and cares for me.  That means I'm a part of something more wonderful than any earthly group.  You're a part of that too if you've accepted Christ and made Him first in your life. 

People will always let you down.  God never will.  So, I guess what I'm saying is don't worry about feeling like you don't fit in if you are accepted by God.  That is worth far more than any acceptance from human beings, and more than makes up for being rejected by humans.

[Martn]

God's Spirit can manifest in physical form --ourselves for one-- and so in that way it is possible for me to come up with many pictures which manifest what God is like, to me.

I really, really, really like frogs. They are my favorite creature! They always look like they're smiling.

[Gail]

So, from what you know about God, what you have learned, He is like frogs- always smiling?

Fair enough- it's your picture!

[Martn]

Frogs have been shown to have a remarkable capacity for compassion.

Saw this on Animal Planet:

A scientist was filming a garter snake trying to eat a frog and captured on video another frog just then happening along who upon seeing his fellow frog in distress, risked his own life, attacked the snake, and forced it to let go of the other frog!