Saturday 30 September 2017

GOD IS: Part Five





GOD IS: Part Five

If you've been following along, you'll know this is the last part of my GOD IS series. I'll admit, these six are a bit random (not the easiest letters to find descriptions for) but hopefully the explanations will clear up any confusion as to what I actually mean. So, here's the letters U-Z of who God is to me. 

U – UNIMAGINABLE

God is way beyond what I could imagine. No matter how big I think he is, he’s bigger. No matter how good I think he is, he’s better. No matter how loving I think he is, he’s more. Even when I try to think bigger, it’s not enough. My mind just can’t comprehend God.

I come to God with a little paper sketch of how I think my life should go and he kindly takes it, tells me I did a good job as one would a young child, and then shows me his plan. The wall to wall, ceiling to floor, intricate tapestry with more colours than I could ever name and more details than I could ever remember. Each piece of thread winding tightly around another as people, events and emotions come and go, and God stays faithful.

I can’t imagine how God can orchestrate billions of lives nor have the heart to deal with so many emotions. I can’t imagine how God can watch children suffer nor bad people prosper. I can’t imagine what it must be like to hold so much power in your hands that he could create entire galaxies with a single word.

And I’m really glad I don’t need to! It gives me such peace to know that God is beyond my comprehension. If I understood him, he wouldn’t be God. I like knowing that he knows more than I do and has more power than I can imagine. I used to think about all the questions I would have to ask God when I met him face to face but the truth is, I don’t think I’ll ask any of them. I have a feeling that the instant I see God, all I will want to do is shut up and bow. Because He is God. The unimaginable God.

Job 38:1-6
Then the Lord spoke to Job out of the storm. He said:
“Who is this that obscures my plans with words without knowledge?
Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me.
“Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand.
 Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it?
On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone—while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?

V – VICTORIOUS

“In the end, God wins. If God hasn’t won, it’s not the end.”

I love this quote. I can’t remember where I read it but it’s stuck in my head ever since. God wins. No matter what happens in your life or how dark and unjust it may look, God will win. Maybe it won’t be until heaven but one day, the world will be put back to rights and God will be the winner. Injustice, pain, darkness, lies – they’ll all be vanquished (fun word!) when God reigns victorious. It’s what gives us hope and the strength to hold on. Because in the end, God wins. Don’t give up in the dark. Hold on to hope. God is victorious.

Deuteronomy 20:4
For the Lord your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory.

Hebrews 11:13-16
All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

W – WORTHY

It probably sounds strange, given how many times I’ve stood in church services or been out in creation but the time I felt the worthiness of God the most – and my subsequent unworthiness to be in his presence – was walking through a garden of stone gods. They were huge. Giant, one to two storey high tributes to Buddha and numerous other gods worshiped by the people in the country I was visiting. They were impressive, for sure, with all their details and flowers and shrines but I couldn’t get over the fact that they were stone. Crumbling stone. 

I’d watched a documentary the day before about the country being bombed and couldn’t help but make the comparison between these statues being worshiped which could be wiped out in an instant with a bomb and the God I served who was alive and real and, unlike a piece of stone, loved me back. I walked outside the garden and sat in absolute awe of the God who was worthy of far more than I had to give. My love, my worship, my life. Everything I had. I could spend my whole life worshiping him and it still wouldn’t be enough.

A whole alphabet almost talking about him and it could never even come close to being enough to describe how worthy God is.

1 Chronicles 16:25
For great is the Lord and most worthy of praise;
    he is to be feared above all gods.

X – X-Files

I’ve written about it in a blog post before but really, following God is beyond anything the world could write about. Angels, demons, spirits – they’re real and they’re at his command. And the Holy Spirit? There is so much I don’t understand about it and I doubt I’ll ever truly comprehend its power or purpose but I am so, so thankful for its presence in my life. To think that God’s spirit lives in me and is available to me twenty-four hours a day to speak with and intercede with God on my behalf when I don’t even know what to ask for. Wow. Mind blown. Scully and Mulder eat your heart out :)

Romans 8:26-27
In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.  And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.

Y – Yes

This one might take a bit of explaining but come on, Y is not the easiest one to come up with! Anyway, God is Yes. Or, another way of putting it, God is on my side. There are so many people who think God is just a party-pooper with a bunch of No-laws. Don’t do this, don’t do that, don’t even think about doing that… He’s not. He’s on our side. And there are so many more times he says yes.

Yes, I want what’s best for you. Yes, I love you. Yes, I have a plan. Yes, it’s a really good one. Yes, you’re worth it. Yes, I’m with you. Yes, I’m working in their lives too. Yes, I’m watching over them. Yes, I remember you. Yes, you really are my precious child and I would do anything to win you back. Yes, I can use that stupid decision you made for my glory. Yes, I truly did pay your ransom. Yes, I can’t wait to see you too. Yes, go, follow your dream. I’m the one who placed it in you and yes, I will help you see it through. Yes, there is hope. Yes, I am enough. Yes, I always will be.

Romans 8:31-32
If God is for us, who can be against us?  He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?

Z – Z (Omega)

When all else is said and done, God will still be God. He was at the beginning and he’ll be at the end. The bookends holding us and all our stories and lives together. Above all, God is.

Revelation 22:13
 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.

And there you have it, twenty-six descriptions of who God is to me. Thing is, it doesn’t even come close to covering even what I know of God. I would need hundreds more alphabets (maybe without Q, X, Y and Z this time!) to do that, and it still wouldn’t be enough. But what an amazing experience it’s been to try.

I never imagined when I had this idea how much I myself would benefit from it. To sit and worship God in this way and be able to share it with others along the way. What an absolute privilege!


I hope you’ve been encouraged by it and maybe even challenged to think about what you love most about God or what words you would use to describe him. May you be blessed today by his goodness.




2 comments:

  1. Thank you Hannah. I have loved reading through this series. I have been challenged to think on who God is. I feel like my relationship with him has been expanded as I have pondered what you have written. Thanks so very much.

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  2. You're very welcome. I feel the same way. I had no idea when I started how much it would impact, encourage or challenge me. There's something so powerful about speaking God's names. Some days writing it has felt like warfare and some like worship. Thanks for sharing it with me.

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