“Then I saw heaven opened, and a white horse was standing there. Its rider was named Faithful and True, for He judges fairly and wages a righteous war. His eyes were like flames of fire, and on His head were many crowns. A name was written on Him that no one understood except Himself. He wore a robe dipped in blood, and His title was the Word of God.” (Revelation 19:11-13 NLT)
Who is God? Talk about a can of worms! Whew! We’ve been considering that topic for centuries, yet, on some levels, haven’t gotten any closer to truly understanding who He is. How can we understand more about who He is? How can we begin to grasp for ourselves the heights, depths, and widths of His holy existence? Will we ever, even in eternity, fully grasp or even begin to comprehend the full dimensions of who He is? Likely not, but that shouldn’t stop us from trying.
Of course, the most complete revelation of Himself was put on display in and though the life of His only Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to whom He has given us full access through His Spirit, if we’ll only ask. But how? Through prayer, conversation with the living God through whom is opened to us a world of opportunity so grand, so beautiful, so breath-taking it’s hard for our mortal minds to take it in.
How do you grasp the meaning of all-knowing? All-powerful? Ever-present? All-loving? All-forgiving? The list is too long to exhaust the attributes of our heavenly Father. But rather than frustrate us, it should ignite within us a strong fire of desire to get to know Him, not simply on an intellectual basis, but as our very personal King of kings, and Lord of lords.
But how? Eugene Peterson gives us a clue when he writes: “Prayer is the way we work our way out of the comfortable but cramped world of self and into the spacious world of God.” What might that look like? One way might be to read and sing some of the old hymns. Believing the Lord inspired and prompted their words, might they leave us clues as to who He is and guide us as we pray.
For example, “Come, Thou Almighty King” whose author is unknown, yet their insights into the heart of God are unmistakable: 1 “Come, Thou Almighty King, help us Thy name to sing; help us to praise: Father, all glorious, o’er all victorious, come, and reign over us, Ancient of Days. 2 Come, Thou Incarnate Word, gird on Thy mighty sword, our pray’r attend: come, and Thy people bless, and give Thy Word success: Spirit of holiness, on us descend. 3 Come, Holy Comforter, Thy sacred witness bear in this glad hour: Thou who almighty art, now rule in every heart, and ne’er from us depart, Spirit of pow’r. 4 To Thee, great One in Three, eternal praises be hence, evermore. His sov’reign majesty may we in glory see, and to eternity love and adore!”
Nearly every line is filled with affirmations of who God is or how we can appropriately respond to Him. The grandeur and magnitude of God’s being is unknowable in its fullness, but can capture our heart and mind and expand our understanding in ways that can deepen, not only our knowledge of, but our intimacy with our heavenly Father.
But here’s the deal. We’ll never learn to appreciate who God is and grow in our desire to pursue investigating His vastness until we realize how our small world of self constricts and restricts us. It’s a little bit like looking from an airplane on the smallness of all that lies below. Until we expand our vision of God, we’ll never see ourselves in proper perspective.
Food for thought.
Blessings, Ed 😊
Walking With Jesus 