God

There is a phrase or phrases that I hear used to describe God that I want to comment on. It is something I found I do frequently and is a common misunderstanding or even mispronunciation of Who God is. Let me give you some examples:

• God can’t lie.
• God must be holy in order to be God.
• God can’t stand sin.

What concerns me about the above statements is the limitations we are placing on God by saying such things. And we wonder why God sometimes seems so weak to us – if we describe Him using words such as “can’t”, “must”, and “has to”, we are projecting the same human limitations on Him that we live under.

Let me suggest another statement that God made of Himself that is a more appropriate description: I AM WHO I AM. God is. Let me use the first statement above as an example of what I think is really true when one considers the truth that God is.

Is it true to say that God cannot lie or that whatever God says is true? Isn’t that the same thing? I don’t think so. The former places a limitation on God that suggests that He can’t lie; the latter says that whatever comes out of the mouth of God is true. Do you see the difference? If tomorrow God says, “2 + 2 = 5”, the universe would immediately conform to be true to that statement. What I am saying here is not that God is bound by truth, but God is truth.

It seems like I am playing with words here, but there is something I have learned in therapy. What we say and how we say it ends up impacting us subconsciously. If I say things about God verbally that appear to limit Him, I may find that I feel He is a more limited God to me.

My encouragement to you this week is to reflect on the truth of God being Himself, unbound by anything, but One Who is completely I AM.