GOD IS: Part Four

GOD IS: Part Four

Ah, life can get pretty crazy, can’t it! These past few weeks in my house have included Father’s Day, two kids’ birthdays, three kids vomiting, two adults with the flu, four trips to the doctor, one ear infection and, just to keep life interesting, one allergic reaction to an antibiotic. Fun times. It was so nice to sit down this morning in the quiet of dawn to not just write this post but purposely focus back on God. Not just the ‘help!” prayers I’ve been tossing heavenward lately but really think about who he is.

So, here’s the next five letters in my GOD IS alphabet.

P – PROTECTOR

It’s easy to feel battered by life. People misunderstanding or making assumptions, never-ending decisions having to be made often with no good options, diseases, work, sleep-deprivation, hurt people hurting people... I love that God is my protector. No, he won’t always stop the pain or protect me from the world but he will always be there by my side as I face it. As the words of a song I love go, ‘He will stand with me as I fight the fight, he will stand with me through the darkest nights…” God is my protector.  

Deuteronomy 3:22

Do not be afraid of them. The Lord, your God himself, will fight for you.

Q – QUIET

I love God’s quiet voice. It’s the whisper in the middle of a whole heap of shouts. The voice that’s always there when I take the time to listen. I heard once that the closer you are to a person, the quieter they can be. That the most intimate things God says to us are the quietest. I love those. I love lying in bed at the end of the day, just being with God in the silence. Love knowing he understands me even without words. Often better without words. God is quiet.

1 Kings 19:11-13

The Lord said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.”

Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.

R – RESOUNDING

Okay, I know, another seeming contradiction after I said God is quiet to now say he’s resounding but it’s not really. I love that God’s voice is louder than the rest, even though it’s often the quietest. It’s one of those things that’s really hard to explain but it’s like through all the other voices shouting, God’s is there – the quietest yet the most resounding. Some people would call it one's conscience. I know it's God's Spirit in me. I hope it always remains the most resounding. 

Genesis 1:3

And God said, ‘Let there be light,” and there was light.

S – SAVIOUR

It’s hard to go past Saviour for S. If not for God choosing to make a way to save me, I’d be nothing. A song that brings me to tears almost every time I sing it is My Chains are Gone by Chris Tomlin, the line where it says ‘my God, my Saviour has ransomed me’. I don’t know what it’s like in real life but it seems in all the mystery books I read or movies/tv shows I watch, the general procedure it not to negotiate with kidnappers. They rarely pay the ransom asked.

But God did. God looked at me, pitiful as I was, and decided not only that I was worth the ransom but that he’d pay it in full. I was worth nothing to him, and he paid everything.  

Romans 5:6-8

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.  Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die.  But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

T – TRUE

Truth seems very subjective in this world. I’m one of those people who really likes things to be black and white and it frustrates me no end that so few things in this world are. Yet, God is truth. What he says is true. I can not only believe it, I can base my life on it. What God says, who he is, is true. My plumbline in this crazy ‘your truth is what you make it’ world. I can count on what he says. I can count on who he is. I love that God is true.

Psalm 33:4

For the word of the Lord is right and true; he is faithful in all he does.

So thankful for my faithful God. I pray this week you know the peace and strength of having God stand by your side. The God who loves you, sings over you and spent everything he had to pay your ransom.

Only Part Five to go now. Anyone have any suggestions for X,Y and Z???? Eek!