“You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” Psalm 16:11
We do not appreciate God the way we should. Like a child who does not understand the greatness of their father, we tend to take God and His attributes for granted. The fact God is absolutely perfect in every respect simply does not compute with our limited human minds. Yet this truth is extremely important for our future depends on who God is. One way to begin to appreciate the greatness of God is to ponder what it would be like if just one of His attributes was missing? Consider His greatest characteristic – love. Assume God existed with all His attributes in place but did not love us. He was still all-powerful, omnipresent and omniscient. He was still truthful, never changing and holy but he had no love for his creation (all the traits in I Corinthians 13 were missing). This does not mean we would be hated, God would still be absolutely holy and just – He would give us what we deserve.. There would just be no love for mankind. Think of our existence. We would live in a state of indifference and neglect. We would not know how to love and therefore everyone would live for themselves. If God did not love us, we would not know what to do in any situation for we could not trust God to do all things for our good. We could not count on eternal life because there would be no love to compel Him to pay what we owed but could not pay. This life would be the best we would ever know. What if God had all His attributes but was changeable? His wisdom and standards would vary from day to day. We could not count on anything He said for the “rules of the game” would never be settled. We would live a life of insecurity and confusion. What if God had all His attributes but was not holy?
What if from time to time He was not slow to anger? We would live in a state of constant fear that He might erupt at us. We would obey but out of fear. What if God did not hate sin and everyone was allowed into heaven? Eternity would be no better than the present. What if God was not eternal? He would exist for awhile but at some point He would cease or something or someone else would take over or, even worse, we would have to fend for ourselves from that point on. What if God was not absolutely faithful – every now and then He would let a promise fail Our confidence and assurance would be shattered. Again eternity would be in turmoil. Even more life on this earth would be full of fear and despair. We would always be afraid that we might be the ones impacted when God did not live up to perfection in one of His attributes. We would be concerned that
things would not work out for good to those who love the Him and are called according to His purpose. We would never know when His mercy might run out before he gets to us. You get the idea. Our existence and every degree of joy and peace we have in this life are totally dependent on the full character of God. Thank the Lord none of the scenarios mentioned above are possible for our Father is absolutely perfect and unchangeable in every attribute. Each of His attributes is critical to His absolute perfection, none are non-essential. Each brings comfort for our peace, joy and security for all of eternity. Unless God is fully God in every attribute, we are hopeless.
What can we learn? It is beyond our comprehension to think of God always existing but also that God is always perfect in everyway. We can not understand this concept but it should cause us to fall on our faces in praise and awe. Part of knowing God is to meditate on his attributes and what they mean to us. Each day we should think of who God is and the implications of His attributes – what they mean to our lives and what life would be like if it did not exist. That exercise will drive us to our knees as we begin to gain a small glimpse of the
greatness of God, our Father. Jeremiah knew this truth. “There is none like You, O Lord; You are great, and great is Your name in might.” (10:6) Nehemiah meditated on the attributes of God. “I said, ‘I beseech You, O Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who preserves the covenant and lovingkindness for those who love Him and keep His commandments.‘” The man after God’s heart knew God’s greatness. Read I Chronicles 29:10-15 and then begin to meditate on the greatness of God. It will change your life and drive you to you knees praising God for His greatness.