God of the Storm

Waiting Well

Who is God?

What is God?

Is there a God?

These are just a few questions that many of us have tried to figure out. How you answer these questions will also shape how you face circumstances and trials, as well as how your view yourself in life.

“God, I pray for Your words, as I try and write about You. May nothing I say turn people away, but instead, may we grow closer to You. Please, reveal Yourself to us; that we would know You more. Bless each one of these readers in a great way this week. May You be honored and glorified through it all. 
It’s in Your name we pray all these things, 
Amen.”

In today’s day and age, the names of God are more commonly used as a curse word, than to refer to the sovereign deity that He is. Society tells us “to each his own” or, quite the opposite, “you must agree with my beliefs”.

Hollywood cannot seem to figure out who God is either. I’ve seen a movie portray God as a woman. In another God came to Moses as a child. And another, the “god” figure (should that be upper case? 😬) passes his powers to man to allow him to try running the world. Whether or not the movies were good or bad is not the point. It just seems like many are unsure of who God is.

Despite being a Christian, I cannot say I know God completely. Recently, in these past months, I have seen that some of my own perceptions of God were lies. I’ll get to a couple of big ones, but before I do, there are a few things I will begin with.

The apostle John, who traveled with Jesus, wrote this:

Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.

John 21:25 NIV

This is how feel when describing God… you just cannot speak of His entirety. There are some things we may not know until we reach Heaven. But isn’t that a wonderful thought? We can spend all our earthly lives searching and learning who God is – unwrapping more of His character – and yet still be surprised with new revelations. That right there is a glimpse of the depth and fathom of God. Wow! That is a BIG God!

I love visuals. So what image can we place with God?

The book of Revelation, also written by John, paints one of the best pictures of God. Here is one descriptive passage. (Bear with me… it’s lengthy… 😀)

And the first voice which I (John) had heard, like the sound of a [war] trumpet speaking with me, said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after these things.” At once I was in [special communication with] the Spirit; and behold, a throne stood in heaven, with One seated on the throne. And He who sat there appeared like [the crystalline sparkle of] a jasper stone and [the fiery redness of] a sardius stone, and encircling the throne there was a rainbow that looked like [the color of an] emerald. Twenty-four [other] thrones surrounded the throne; and seated on these thrones were twenty-four elders dressed in white clothing, with crowns of gold on their heads.

From the throne came flashes of lightning and [rumbling] sounds and peals of thunder.

[Day and night there was praising] “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come.”

[…] the twenty-four elders fall down before Him who sits on the throne, and they worship Him who lives forever and ever; and they throw down their crowns before the throne, saying, “Worthy are You, our Lord and God, to receive the glory and the honor and the power; for You created all things, and because of Your will they exist, and were created and brought into being.
‭‭

Revelation‬ ‭4:1-5, 8, 10-11‬ ‭AMP‬‬

Goose pimples, anyone? What a sight! And what an image, that all the angels and saints in Heaven worship and adore Him! They never tire of singing to Him, nor does God ever do anything undeserving of praise. Wow. I’d highly recommend reading Revelation to any who haven’t. It’s a deep read, but it is strewn with passages of God’s control and His love for people. We even read numerous verses that remind us that even the devil has to answer to God. Sometimes I forget that Satan cannot do anything unless “God allows”. Remember that.

Let’s look at another passage.

We all know the story of Moses and the Ten Commandments. But did you know that Moses had physical changes by being in God’s presence? Yeah! Get this –

When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hand, he did not know that the skin of his face was shining [with a unique radiance] because he had been speaking with God. When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to approach him.

Exodus‬ ‭34:29-30‬ ‭AMP‬‬

Moses was glowing because of God’s overwhelming brilliance! What an image!

God is holy. God is worthy of all praise. God is Almighty. God Is – He has no beginning or end (Isaiah 40:28, 57:15). God is the same God today as He was with Adam and Eve (Malachi 3:6). God is love (1 John 4:8). God is just and fair (Deuteronomy 32:4).

And the list goes on.

When we view God, I pray you do not make the mistake of picking and choosing which feature/s of God you’d like to believe – that fit your desires – and disregard the others.

I did.

I believed the lie, that God’s love and mercy is conditional. I felt unnecessary guilt because of the pressure I was putting on myself to “be” and “act” a certain way to deserve His love and grace. This may be how it feels with the people around us, but God never stops loving us and His love never changes. God’s love for King David is the same love for me. I cannot earn more love. I cannot lose His love. You and I are loved the same.

I also was deceived into thinking that if God is love, then bad things should not happen to me. I equated God’s love with the love I have for my children. I would never allow them to have physical harm, yet how can God? Doesn’t He love me and my family more than I ever can? If I am a good Christian, fully trusting and serving God, and if I have faith, my family and I would not have pain or suffering.

Oh boy… That mentality is awfully close to believing that I had control over God’s plans and decisions for my family’s and my life. -Eeesh…😬- In a sense, I was trying to play “God”. Yikes. That’s cringeworthy for sure.

My counselor sent me a sermon by Pastor Brad Bigney called, Jesus in the Storm. I would highly recommend it! In it he said this,

“If you’re thinking ‘His presence with me, and His love for me, would never allow me to go through a terrifying storm’… if that’s your starting premise (theory), you will regularly fight horrible, scary thoughts about your Savior. ‘I guess He’s not good. I guess He doesn’t have power.’ You keep holding on to the ways you think it should be, instead of the ways He said it would be. This negative thinking only exasperates the storm. You keep trying to live by your own premise, instead of laying hold of a precious actual promise. You’re premise will fail you over and over again. His promise never will.”

He also added a quote from Elizabeth Elliot, which I also find so fitting,

“Elizabeth Elliot looked for answers (as to why her missionary husband was murdered) in the Bible. She read through the entire Scriptures. She concluded, “God is God. If He is God He is worthy of my service and my worship. I will find rest nowhere but in His will. And that will is infinitely, unmeasurably, unspeakably beyond my notion of what He might be up to. God is the God of human history and He is at work continuously, mysteriously accomplishing His eternal purposes, in us, through us, and for us and in spite of us. For us widows, the question as to why our husbands should be speared to death was not one that could be smoothly or finely answered in 1956 nor yet silenced in 1996.

Elizabeth Elliot had the proper perspective of God. We may go through things here on earth that seem to have no positive reasoning, and yet God is faithful, and His promises are true.

It is like the Pointillism paintings. These paintings are made up of many well placed colored dots. Close up, things seem disconnected and messy. And yet, as once you take a step back, the picture is clear, and wonderful! We are the dots! All we see around us are other spots. It doesn’t seem to make anything remotely “good”. But God sees the end result. We know that “ALL things work together for good, for those who love God and are called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28). We will see the beauty once we get to Heaven. We are part of a magnificent masterpiece.

Ending with the beginning in mind, I’ve titled this post, “God of the Storm” for two reasons. On one hand, it refers to God – the One who is our Rock and Fortress. In Him is eternal victory and freedom in every storm. The title is also there to make us think – if my focus isn’t on the Protector and Provider, and the correct views of God… what have we put in His place? What is your “god (little “g”) in the storm”?

I hope you search the scriptures for yourselves, and let me know your answer;

“Who is God”.