She convinced me with her charisma that she was the one wronged, that the leaders of our church were out to get her. So, my heart went out to her, and what felt like righteous anger toward our pastor began to take hold. Thankfully, God stepped in and put me in the path of our pastor so that he could clarify the situation. His grace toward this woman demonstrated to me who was ‘in the right.’ The relief I felt about my pastor was HUGE! Yet, my stomach roiled with distress. The woman I’d trusted was not who she said she was. She had flat out lied.
Sometimes our life experiences can cause us to look at God with the same skepticism I had for our pastor. We angrily wonder if He’s been lying to us all along. We put up walls of self-protection to keep the One we distrust at bay. Only to discover one day, with sickening clarity, that He isn’t the one who lies.
Friends, we are on a treasure hunt. Together we’ll dig into our life experiences and assumptions, as well as the Word of God, in order to uncover gems of truth that will set us free from the shackles of doubt. And, if we cannot trust that God is who He says He is, then our efforts will be in vain.
Doubt
I ended up joining the church staff where that pastor proved to be worthy of my trust. As painful as those weeks of doubt and distrust were, I grew to be quite grateful for that experience because it taught me my confidence in my pastor (and boss) was well-placed. I didn’t have to doubt His heart and motives.
We need the same kind of certitude in our Father. If we’re to mature in our faith, if we want to become more like Jesus, we’re going to need a sturdy rock of trust in our Faither on which to build. We must be able to trust that He is who He says He is or we’ll never fully trust Him.
So. This is when we name any shred of doubt we have in us – latent or obvious – about God’s very personhood. Do we believe He is who He says He is?
Dig
Doubt named, it’s time to dig into our personal narratives to see where this doubt about God originates. Or, to see where a doubt we once had about Him is now resolved.
When I dig into myself, I find that my belief in God’s very nature, as the God I had learned about and accepted as being who He claims to be, came to a head in college. I can look back now to see that I let the voices of the world plant seeds of doubt in my mind about who God is.
Instead of seeing God as faithful and loving and good, my young adult self began to believe that He was an overlord, a rule-monger, a type of authoritarian who took malicious pleasure in taking away my freedoms – freedoms I wanted to explore in those years. Armed with this doubt about God, I turned my back on Him and began living life as I desired, as I thought was best.
The freedoms exhilarated. The control I felt made for great headiness. At every turn, I thought I was proving my doubts true – until my world came crashing down.
All my choices had consequences, and as I lay in my bed one dark day, spiraling in despair, it dawned on me. The ‘rules’ I had ‘broken’ were not established to rob me of joy. They were there for my good. To protect me. So, I reached for my Bible, dusted it off, and began reading about the God I had distrusted.
Dig Deeper
In the weeks and months that followed my great ah-ha about God, He proved to be more than I’d ever imagined. The faith I’d had as a child began to mature as I built it on the bedrock of God’s Word and with a clearer understanding of who God is:
God is not a man, so he does not lie.
Numbers 23:19 NLT
He is not human, so he does not change his mind.
Has he ever spoken and failed to act?
Has he ever promised and not carried it through?
Paul reiterates this truth in Titus 1:2, saying, “in the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time.”
And, on the night of her annunciation, Mary learned from the angel Gabriel that “no word from God will ever fail” (Luke 1:37).
Discovery
The Numbers verse from the Old Testament says much about God, but perhaps the most intriguing is the fact that He is not man. Though we are made in His image, God is beyond human – He’s transcendent – so we must be careful about ascribing too much of our own humanity to Him. As such, we need to remember that God does not lie. It’s not in Him to be able to do so. It’s not who He is.
The New Testament gems also shine the truth that God does not lie; therefore, we can take it on God’s word that He is who He says He is. We can trust that whatever God says is backed by the power of Truth, and that Truth will never fail. God is Truthful.
These discoveries about the nature of God build for us a necessary foundation for growing in our faith. If we can’t trust that God is who He says He is, what else can we trust about Him?
In case we’re tempted to believe that this is too simple, that it requires too much blind faith, we can take a page out of Moses’ book. We can look back on Scriptural history to see the reality of God’s word being true – His identity being true.
By the time Moses comes across the burning bush, he’s eighty years old. He has left the life of luxury that he had growing up in Pharaoh’s home. He has run from his own rash decision to murder an Egyptian, ‘hiding’ for forty years in a foreign land as a shepherd. In other words, His distance from God is great.
So when God calls to him from the flames in the bush that does not burn up (Exodus 3:3), Moses needs some clarifying about who is doing the burning, the speaking. And God responds, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob” (v.6).
Within minutes God pushes ahead, telling Moses to lead His people to freedom. And Moses balks. He throws out every question imaginable, perhaps to wriggle out of his call or maybe to build some trust – is God who He says He is?
When Moses finally asks his burning question about God’s identity, God firmly states, “I am who I am” (v.14). In offering His name, God reveals His truest essence. “I am who I am” both affirms God’s personhood and leaves us scratching our heads in the enormous mystery that is our God. At the same time, God can be understood, and He is Incomprehensible.
Moses eventually accepts God as He is and takes every step of His calling with a deep trust in the God of his fathers. And for the rest of Moses’ life, God proves over and over that He is indeed the One who made a covenant with His people – and intends to keep it.
But – hear this – if God hadn’t given Moses space to wrestle with his apprehensions, Moses’ faith in God would never have lasted the trials that lay ahead. His doubts, the people’s complaints, and their trying circumstances over the forty-plus years they wandered the desert would have erased every shred of belief in God (think: golden calf). Instead, Moses had a firm foundation on which to land every time his faith got a little shaky.
God is who He says He is.
In the looking back over our lives and the story of God, we’re given the gift of remembrance – to remember how God has followed through on every promise He’s ever made (Numbers 23:19). To remember that He won’t start changing that fact of who He is now.
This week of digging and discovery has made room for us to meet with God, just as Moses did, so that we can take a good look at the God who calls to us. These ‘hidden spaces’ with God carve out time and place for getting to know Him, for wrestling with Him, and for falling deeper in love with Him.1
Friends, we can move forward in faith, trusting God is God, just as He says He is.
Father God! Thank You for giving us space to meet with You – to ask all our questions and to wrestle with our doubts. How amazing it is that You don’t judge us or push us away when we bring to You all our thoughts and feelings. It helps us to be reminded that You never lie. And even though we may not always understand You fully, we can trust that You’ll reveal the parts of Yourself that we need, as we need them. We ask that You, our glorious Father, would continue to fill us with the Spirit of wisdom and revelation so that we might know You better. Lord Jesus, we depend on You to keep showing us the truth of the Father. You once told us that if we’ve seen You, then we’ve seen the Father, so we ask that in your creative, constant way You’d keep showing us who God is. Holy Spirit, You are God in us! And we long to trust the words of the Father that You speak over us. We ask that You would speak a word over us today that affirms in our spirits that God is who He says He is. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.
(inspired by John 14:7,16-17,21; Psalm 55:22; Numbers 23:19; Ephesians 1:17; Hebrews 1:1-3; 1 Corinthians 2:9-10)
Resources: I love sharing with you the books, podcasts, articles, and anything else that has inspired, encouraged, or taught me. These are humble offerings with no expectations.
- 1 – The idea that God meets with us in hidden, or secret, places is one that is tucked into Scriptures, Old and New. It’s an idea I hope we’ll not only learn more about throughout this series but we’ll come to see as a practice, a rhythm of meeting God. This article offers some thoughts about it, as well as some of those places in the Bible that make reference to it. I’m praying we can always find the hidden places of God that are full of grace, healing, comfort, and hope.
- Our Backpack of God’s Attributes is our virtual bag for collecting every characteristic of God we find in all our hunting. Acknowledging God is REAL, we can now load up all we discover about Him. So far:
- God is Worthy — He deserves all glory and honor and praise.
- God is Glorious — He displays His greatness and worth.
- God is Transcendent — He is not like humans. He is infinitely higher in being and action.
- God is Truthful — Whatever God speaks or does is truth and reality.
- God is Incomprehensible — God is beyond our understanding. We can comprehend Him in part but not in whole.
- (many thanks to Jen Wilkin and her list, “Attributes of God,” present at the back of every study)
- On our new playlist, “Hidden Treasures,” song after song praises God for who He is. But, perhaps the song that captures the heart of today’s post is the hymn, “In the Secret,” recorded by Shane & Shane. I don’t know about you, but listening to the lyrics of this song after spending time talking to God about who He is increases my desire to know Him — even more.
- If you want to hear just a little more about today’s topic, you can catch the “Teacup Video” on this topic on Wednesday — on my Facebook Author Page, Instagram or YouTube.
- The June edition of my newsletter, The Abiding Life has already landed. I’d love to hear your thoughts about the way God affirms us in all He calls us to do! (comment below). If you didn’t get your June newsletter, email me. You can subscribe for future newsletters here.
Rhythms: As my newsletter’s title infers, we seek to develop an abiding life in this space — a place where we can get informed but also be transformed as we learn to abide in God’s presence throughout our days. I like to think that developing rhythms is one way to aid us in our desire to become more Christlike.
Praise, our summer rhythm, is the speaking of truths about WHO GOD IS. It lifts our eyes off our circumstances and back onto the One who can walk us through them. And the Psalms are packed with poems that will lead us through this ritual of reflection and remembrance — until it becomes a rhythm that we fall into naturally.
- This week, let’s read Psalm 100 (it’s short so I’ll post it below). Things to watch for: 1) the ways we can praise God, 2) the line “Know that the Lord is God” and ponder its significance — then and now, and 3) the phrase “we are his” — sit with it; give it space to do a work in you. And respond with praise to your Father — who is Transcendent and Incomprehensible, yet oh so honest and approachable.
Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.
Worship the Lord with gladness;
come before him with joyful songs.
Know that the Lord is God.
It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and praise his name.
For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;
his faithfulness continues through all generations. - For those days that we doubt who God is, we can reinforce our faith and realign our hearts with His — by praising Him. Because when we speak the truths of God’s being, our faith stabilizes. Our hope finds an anchor. Our love becomes firmly established. And our trust in our Father overcomes all other doubts and fears. We’ll marvel that as we take hold of these truth-treasures, everything in us overflows in showers of praise to the One True God. Praise leads to truth then to faith then to more praise.
- And while it’s not a spiritual practice or rhythm, I invite you to share this site. Summer is a great time to ask someone else to join us here — it is a shared journey of faith, for sure!
Featured Photo by Gary Yost on Unsplash. “All the Bits and Pieces” photo by Zrng N Gharib on Unsplash.