View of God

A.W. Tozer in his book The Knowledge of the Holy writes, "What comes to mind when we think about God is the most important thing about us."
David and Beth Booram in their new book When Faith Becomes Sight (which I'm in the process of reading) observe that "in addition to our conscious and scripted concepts of God, we have many unscripted and unconscious notions about God... It's not just what we think about God but equally important what we imagine God thinking and feeling about us. As our good friend Dana said recently, "How we think about God is our theology. What we believe God thinks and feels about us is the relationship." This train of thought intuitively suggests that each of us has an internal library of unconscious God images that we've absorbed from our parents, community, faith traditions, culture and life experiences. These have been imprinted on our psyches. And from this largelyhidden collection we experience our soul's deeper orientation toward God, one that persistently tells us who we are to God and who God is to us."
They go on to write about healthy and unhealthy God images and whether our images are hostile or life-affirming. They say simply put "whatever engenders fearful disapproval reveals a radical and fundamental distortion within you. Whatever inspires loving trust points to your increasing proximity to the God who is. Are you afraid of the God of your understanding, or are you naturally drawn to surrender to Love?"
The chapter on this topic is a challenging read and I will need to go through it a number of times. I recognize that I possess a number of unhealthy images but also know that through the years I have come to develop healthy images as well. The Christian faith and life is ever an ongoing process. I pray it never grows dull for me

"Remember that God seeks the offering of your heart, not the offering of protection." (read it somewhere this week but do not remember where)

I Peter 5:6-14 was the Friday lectionary passage. Here is my journal summary of the passage. "Some practical teaching for living the Christian life in midst of the devil's temptations and earthly human sufferings.Be humble and trust your cares to God who is gracious toward us and will help us in all ways. God is the power forever." (There we see a healthy image of God, gracious, caring, power at work for us.)
The English Standard Version study Bible gives some helpful thoughts from this passage
1. In their suffering, God's people are to give themselves entirely to God, submitting to His wise ordering of their lives. Those who suffer can be confident that the day of humiliation will not last forever. Whether later in this earthly life or on the Last day God will exalt His people at the proper time.

2. Worry is a form of pride because it involves taking concerns upon oneself instead of entrusting them to God. Believers can trust God because as their Father, He cares for them.

3. Christians need to be spiritually vigilant, watching for attacks from the devil. Though the devil may threaten to "devour" Christians, they nonetheless have assurance that they will be guarded by God's power.

4. Trusting in God's promises, believers know that suffering is not the final word and that ultimately they will be exalted. Christians who suffer in any age can be assured that they are not alone in their distress.

5. From God's perspective one's time in in this world is notably brief. Thus no matter how long or intense one's suffering may be, it will be short compared to the joys of eternity.

6. The God who effectually called believers by His grace will fortify them with His strength, so that they are able to endure to the end. Because God is sovereign and rules over all, believers have nothing to fear.

A word from our weekly Bible readings:
Monday, May 18 - Acts 1:6-14                    authority
Tuesday, May 19 - Psalm 68:1-10, 32-35     jubilant
Wednesday May 20- I Peter 4:12-14           sharing
Thurs. Ascension Day May 21- Acts 1:1-11 up
Friday May 22  - I Peter 5: 6-11                   called
Saturday May 23 - John 17:1-11                  glorify
Sunday May 24  - John 17:12-26                 be one

A prayer for May 21 (my favorite of the week) "Merciful Spirit, form my soul and make me spiritually dependent on You. Help me to discern the movements of Your wings and may I also hear Your gently calling voice. Amen."