Daily PresenceНамуна

How do we view the Lord? Is He the cold, distant judge who unflinchingly watches from above? Is He the kindly, loving relative who never says a negative word? How do we know what is true and what is false? The only way to really know the Lord is to spend time with Him. We have to get to know Him through His word, through prayer, through time spent with Him in praise, prayer, and listening. It’s the only way to truly reconcile who God is. How does the God we see in Ezekiel in chapters 39-40 match with what we know of God when He created us? How does it match with what we know of God as He stood in the form of Jesus and taught the sermon on the mount? Truthfully, God is all this and so much more. He does love with a fierce love that devastates sin. He is holy with purity that is blinding when truly witnessed. He is the God who became man because of His love, and here He is the God who wanted the people to know that He was capable of showing His fierceness to those who would refuse Him. Passages like today can be hard as we see the Lord talking about wiping out enemies. If we don’t truly take the time to get to know Him (as best we can), then these passages can feel like stumbling blocks. We have to be able to know God throughout the Bible to know who He truly is. It’s the only way we can begin to understandallthe attributes of God and not just one. To say that God is only one thing is not to know Him. It creates a false balance in our heads and hearts. We can be tripped up by trying to figure out why a loving God would say that Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom…yet also know that this same God preached forgiveness for sins. Similarly, we are not only one thing. We were made in God’s image, yet of course we are not perfect, and we have all fallen to sin. We need a relationship with the Lord. A relationship only exists when it’s developed and cultivated, which is what happens when we spend time with Him.