Knowing Christ: Take Time to Consider the Attributes of God

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“Only to sit and think of God,

Oh what a joy it is!

To think the thought, to breathe the Name

Earth has no higher bliss.”

Frederick W. Faber

I’ve always been an introspective person. I remember getting lost in my thoughts as a child; stopping to look up at the clouds and considering how utterly great God must be to have made them.

And yet, as an adult, noise and busyness are ever present. Even when the busyness of the day ends, I turn to the TV or my phone.

One reason rest and quietness are good for our souls is that they provide the necessary space to consider God and think on His goodness.

Have you ever done this? Do you take this time on a regular basis? What would you even think about?

Considering the Attributes of God

God is infinite, existing before creation, outside of time and space. He is completely immeasurable and has no limits.

God is creator. He makes good and perfectly beautiful things. Consider what you find beautiful. A specific piece of art or music? The God of the universe is immensely more creative than any earthly artist who produced these pieces. In fact, all beautiful things should point us to the true standard of beauty.

God is Holy. He is utterly set apart, different than. God is the standard by which we should compare all good things.

God is completely powerful, and we are not. He is the source of all power and strength, sovereign over His creation. What a low view of the all-powerful, sovereign God of the universe we must have to tell Him that we are in charge. Even if we don’t dare to utter those words, how often do we act as though we are in control?

God is just. Our earthly standards of justice pale in comparison to who God is. In The Knowledge of the Holy, A.W. Tozer says,

“Everything in the universe is good to the degree it conforms to the nature of God and evil as it fails to do so. God is His own self-existent principle of moral equity, and when He sentences evil men or rewards the righteous, He simply acts like Himself from within, uninfluenced by anything that is not Himself.”

God is loving and merciful. This seems to conflict with God’s justice, but as Tozer continues, “No attribute of God is in conflict with another.” We see God’s display of justice, love, and mercy on the cross. Christ’s death satisfying the penalty of our sin, and God making a way, that we never deserved, back to a relationship with Him.

“Knowing Christ Jesus my Lord”

A relationship with Him. As believers, these attributes of God are not just high-level theology studied by the spiritual elite. They are words we use to describe God Himself, the very God we are privileged to know intimately.
In another of Tozer’s books, The Pursuit of God, he describes the moment when we realize that we can know God personally.

“You and I are in little (our sins excepted) what God is in large. Being made in His image we have within us the capacity to know Him. In our sins we lack only the power. The moment the Spirit has quickened us to life in regeneration our whole being senses its kinship to God and leaps up in joyous recognition. That is the heavenly birth without which we cannot see the Kingdom of God. It is, however, not an end but an inception, for now begins the glorious pursuit, the heart’s happy exploration of the infinite riches of the Godhead.”

Oh mama, may you find joy and delight today as you continue on this path to pursue your God! Find time to reflect on the many attributes of God. Pick up your Bible and read about His wondrous works. Add books like The Knowledge of the Holy and None Like Him (by Jen Wilkin) to your bookshelf. Approach Him in prayer. Turn your thoughts toward the mysteries of the Triune. Let your heart cry out the words of Paul,

Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.” (Philippians 3:8-10)

Paul’s words about knowing Christ do not describe only an intellectual knowledge, but a relationship of intimate fellowship.

Do not let your faith become so routine that you lose sight of the joy of knowing Christ. Let all else be considered rubbish compared to gaining Him!

Prayer

O God, I have tasted Thy goodness, and it has both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more. I am painfully conscious of my need of further grace. I am ashamed of my lack of desire. O God, the Triune God, I want to want Thee; I long to be filled with longing; I thirst to be made more thirsty still. Show me Thy glory, I pray Thee, that so I may know Thee indeed. Begin in mercy a new work of love within me. Say to my soul, ‘Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.’ Then give me grace to rise and follow Thee up from this misty lowland where I have wandered so long. In Jesus’ name. Amen. – A. W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God