Who Do You Understand God to Be?

"Who Do You Understand God to Be?"

Not long ago a friend wrote and asked me the above question.  It was part of an assignment for people in recovery from difficult challenges in their lives.  Below is my answer:

Precious Friend,

Thank you for the privilege of answering the question!  And yes, I am STILL in recovery!  And loving all that He is teaching me through His Word, books, you and other precious, treasured friends.

I don’t understand God.  And I celebrate that fact joyfully!  That has been one of the wonderful realizations of this process!  All through the book of Colossians the word “mystery” shows up.  The fact that God is a mystery used to be a huge frustration for me and I tried and tried to understand Him.  When I came to the place of releasing to Him my rights to understand Him, I began a process of not only dying to myself and my agenda but coming alive to Him.  It wasn’t long after, that I came to realize that if I could understand God and wrap my mind around who He is then He wouldn’t be big enough to handle all that I needed Him to deal with.

In my journey of getting to know Him, as you know, I read through the Bible making a note of every name, action and characteristic of God.  It was life changing as the wonder of this God who is beyond comprehension and definition became a part of my frame of reference.  The list could be a book!  I alphabetized the list and when I need to grasp a facet of God for a particular situation, I ask Him to give me a letter to refer to.  Then I go and worship through the names and characteristics on that particular letter.  It has been a deep, mystical journey.

Another sweet revelation came from a verse in Ephesians 3:10.  My translation (and several others) of that verse refer to the “manifold wisdom” of God.  My favorite commentator says that manifold means multi-colored and therefore there is no situation that the wisdom of God cannot match!!!  For someone who loves color and style, that insight thrilled me!  He’s not only unmatchable but HE MATCHES the color and bewilderment of any circumstance with the perfect “color” of His specific wisdom!!!

With love,

P.S.  If you'd be interested in an electronic copy of my names and characteristics of God, just email me at:  svolkhardt@msn.com and I'll be happy to send you a copy.