I have been thinking a lot about the nature of God over the Christmas break. Much of my thinking has been helped by Jen Wilkins excellent book – “None like Him.” In the book she explores ten characteristics of God, all of them completely unattainable by us, and 10 characteristics of God which we really can begin to grow towards. Her point is that too often we focus on the wrong 10. It’s worth a read.

As I read the book I became so aware of the scale of our God. God is limitless. A simple thing to say but a tricky thing to grasp. There is nothing He cannot do, nowhere He cannot be. There is no knowledge He doesn’t behold, no problem that is beyond Him. Time does not constrain Him and sin does not affect him. He has no beginning and no end. He is self sufficient, self sustaining, and self created.

This awareness highlighted something quite alarming to me – how often we use reduction when it comes to our faith.

These incredible truths about God are amazing but the reality is I don’t know where to put that information. I find the words of the writer of Psalm 139 helpful here – “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.” I am not like Him in these things. There are lots I cannot do, many places I cannot be. There is so much knowledge I don’t have, most problems are beyond me. Time stresses and constrains me, sin battles against me constantly. I have a beginning and an end. I am entirely and indisputably limited.

The gap between who God is and who I am feels so wide that wherever I try to understand and explain who He is in a deeper way I often end up in this process of reduction. I don’t think I am consciously trying to reduce God but my lack of comfort with not being able to understand and grasp Him leads me there. I often think of Him as something smaller because I can picture it better. I use human analogies to explain Him to myself and others. Whilst my endeavours and motivation are good, they are undoubtably limited. If I end up living these pictures and analogies I will often reduce who He is and live out a false picture of God.

I believe we need to become comfortable again with the mystery of God and accept the limitation of our humanity.

Modern culture has sought to do the opposite and Christian culture has often done the same. For the most part the heart was correct. Our desire was to let people know that they are not worthless, that they are important to the Father. This of course is true, but it was often pushed too far. That combined with the desire to understand and explain God which has often led to the reduction I have been talking about has resulted in an unfortunate scenario.

A reduced God and an inflated humanity

We know this combination never works well. Throughout the Scriptures we see the results of this again and again – the tower of Babel, disobedience in the wilderness, kings who disobeyed God resulting in the exile to Babylon, are all examples. As humans we never do well when we elevate ourselves, it’s why God tried to ensure that we would never put anything before Him.

Putting God first in anything means to embrace ‘not understanding,’ it means we will need to become comfortable with mystery and accept that we do not hold all knowledge and power.

It’s time to stop reducing who He is and begin accepting who we are!