Where Does Your Image of God Come From? – by Bilyana De Soto

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Jul 14, 2016 3113

What are your images of God? Where do they come from? Do they sit well with you?

How I view God has everything to do with how I live as a Christian – how I pray, how I relate to God, to others and how much peace and contentment abide in my life.

There are those who think of God mostly as an exacting judge or a policeman. In the eyes of others, God is a strict, censorial father with whom they are not particularly close. Rather, He is someone to be appeased and then avoided. This image of God leads to a life under the reign of rules. We feel like God is watching our every move to catch us out doing wrong. Of course, you do not want to mess around with this God of anger; just do as you are told, get out of His way and hope for the best.

If you relate to any of these sentiments of relating to God, hear the good news of the gospel and your image of God will change completely.

It is entirely clear to me as a gospel believing Christ-centred Christian as to why it is supremely important to see God in Christ. The apostle Paul majors in the glory of God as revealed in Jesus Christ. It’s in Him that God’s glory is manifested and maximized. Here we see the glory of God in the love that he shows. The glory of Christ outshines the glory of Moses and the law.  This is a God who became one of us because he loved us supremely and all cost.

My image of God does not come from a God who uses a remote control device from heaven to take care of some problems on earth. We don’t see heaven sending down remotely controlled drones to win the war raging here on earth. No, Jesus took to the front lines taking the brunt of the enemy onslaught in His own body, suffering and dying a horrific death. Why?

For God so loved…so cared for you, for me and for all His creation. This is not just a change in how you see God, but how you see yourself, others and eternity.

– Bilyana De Soto