Knowing God

As long as I can remember I had thoughts about God. It seems like a long time ago in a galaxy far far away (3 years old in Willis, TX) I was tucked into bed, and led to pray, “Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep. And if I die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.” I never stopped calling Jesus Lord, but it wasn’t for another 17 years until I allowed Him to be Lord in my life. Before that time, I had a lot of ideas about Him, but actually knowing God was a different story.

Most of my life I misunderstood God

My experiences awoke me from my child-like dream of God like someone dousing me in icy water. These wake-up calls came subtly at times, like a string of unfortunate events, or being made fun of for being different. And sometimes painfully obvious, like a sudden sickness and death, or having someone you trust betray you. I know you’ve had your own share of these experiences—we all have.

These events tell us that God doesn’t care about us or any person individually. They claim that if He is real, He’s watching things play out from a distance on some frozen throne in the clouds. His involvement amounts to toying with you to see how you’ll respond. You are on your own, still one day you’ll answer His judgment for your decisions. If we listen to these types of things, it won’t be long before we’ll stop liking this “Lord.”

But the truth is God knows you and loves you and He invites you to know Him and love Him.

Knowing God

When I realized that God wasn’t like I’d thought, there was a long process of breaking down lies I’d believed and replacing them with the truth. I recently read a book by my friend Andrea Moede. It is beautifully written and reveals the true heart of God. I wish I had received the truths in this book a long time ago. It addresses so many of the things I had come to believe about God. It’s called Misunderstood: A Refreshing Guide To Dumping Religion For Good And Diving Deep Into A Personal Discovery Of The God Who Changes Everything.

Click here to get the book on Amazon! 😉

If you have ever felt misunderstood, imagine what God feels. Really… how many people are there walking around with their incorrect ideas about God? How much of His creation has no idea about the depth of His love for them? Do you know how much He loves you? Thankfully, I’m still learning this because God’s love is truly immeasurable!

God hopes that you might find Him, though He is not far from you.

If there was something that you believed about God that wasn’t true, would you want to know? Think about that question for a minute. We all think at every moment that our conclusions are correct. What if you misunderstood God and didn’t know it?

“God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’

– Acts 17:24-28 (NKJV)

Remember that no matter the hard things you are going through… No matter what experiences life is trying to use to convince you otherwise… God is close to you and loves you, His child.

Let us know in the comments how God has revealed His love to you when you misunderstood Him. And don’t forget to pick up your copy of Andrea’s book (and her free bonus journal linked within the first few pages)! If you like it, go back to Amazon and review it as this will help it get into the hands of more people.