One: A Personal God

“And this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.” JOHN 17:3, (New Testament, Bible, KJV)


BELIEF ONE: God Wants Us to Know Him

I believe in a personal God. I believe in personal religion. This is not to say that I believe either religion or God are subjective. I am not so audacious as to believe that if a being such as God exists, that his nature is determined in any way by what I want him to be. If there is a God, then he is what he is, regardless of what I believe, or what I want. There are times when I would naïvely avoid this truth. However, in the end, I resign myself to the fact that if God is or does thus (whatever I might be struggling with), then he must be right, and somehow if I only could see as he sees, I would understand.

I believe that God wants us to know him. That may seem like a simple thought, but there are many who believe in God who don’t believe in this concept. It’s an essential foundation of my faith, however. As part of that, I believe that God has left all of us here on earth with some way to know him. Apparently, in different times and for different people, he reveals more or less of himself, and/or different aspects of himself, depending upon his wisdom for that time or people or individual. Whenever I don’t understand the behavior of God towards me (or all of us), I find a rope to hang onto in these words from Isaiah 55:8-11:

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord; For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.”

I do not believe that this scripture is saying, “You cannot understand me, so don’t even try.” I can’t believe that’s what is meant by “faith in God”. Besides, this goes against my first premise: I believe God wants us to know him. I’ll explore what I think “faith” is in another entry.

Any comments are welcome. You may express faith or doubt -- as long as you are sincere, and please try to be considerate of others.