11.13.2008

God Told Me...

I've been up to my eyeballs in the Old Testament lately. Between the current sermon series at church and my current Bible study, I feel like I've learned a lot about Moses...and even more about God. It has been a refreshing time for me and for my spiritual walk. However, the more I study and read, the more I realize I actually have opinions about a few things I've seen, felt or heard in my world.


In discovering the character of God through the OT, I have learned that God is everything you've thought Him to be - jealous, angry, passionate, powerful, gentle, understanding, compassionate, beautiful, strong, believable, encouraging, humbling, grace-filled...glorious. And the more I see the character of God, the more amazed by Him I become. It wasn't long ago in my walk with God that I would have seen words like angry and jealous and thought they were somehow a mistake. My God wouldn't be those things. My God is loving and kind and gentle and perfect. And, He is. But He is also jealous - He wants me to be His. He is angry - God hates sin. He is God, and He is good.

I've also learned that He is pretty specific about His character, and when you think God is telling you to do something that seems completely out of the character of God, it probably is. I don't believe God calls us to do anything that hurts His name or His body. I don't believe God calls us to division and destruction. I believe God calls us to obedience and to be open to doing His will through His name.

Think about it. When was the last time God "told" you something that didn't seem to fit with His character? He "told" you to be mean, cruel, or disobedient. He asked you to do something that was in direct contradiction of the life Jesus showed us how to live. Does that make sense? No, it doesn't, and no, it shouldn't. Because God, my God, calls us to unity, to family and to love. He calls us to make tough choices and to choose His path, but He calls us to do it with grace, revealing nothing but His character along the way.

Have no doubt, God will ask you to do extraordinary things, but they will be things that bring Glory to His name, not things that bring division to His world or His people.


1 comment:

  1. Satan is such a deceiver, and he is effective. I just heard about people who are sure God wants them to divorce b/c He wants them to be happy and healthy...God told them. It started in the garden, with satan deceiving about God's words, plans, and desires, and he's still using the same old tricks.

    "Have no doubt, God will ask you to do extraordinary things, but they will be things that bring Glory to His name, not things that bring division to His world or His people."

    Your last sentence was so powerful.

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