MARCH 12

OUR PERSONAL PROMISES

***** *****

Job 42:3

“You asked, ‘Who is this who hides counsel without knowledge?’ Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, Things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.”

Job 37:5

“God thunders marvelously with His voice; He does great things which we cannot comprehend.”

Psalm 97:9

“For You, Lord, are most high above all the earth; You are exalted far above all gods.”

Ephesians 1:21

“far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come.”

Ephesians 4:10

“He who descended is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.”

Psalm 139:6

“Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is high, I cannot attain it.”

***** *****

Our book for this month  is called “100 NAMES OF GOD”  written by Christopher D. Hudson.  Each day we’ll take one Hebrew name for God as given in the Bible to study and relate to.

GABAHH

TRANSCENDENT

Isaiah 55:8-9

“’For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,’ declares the Lord, ‘As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.’”

The reason we cannot fully understand God is because He is TRANSCENDENT. He is bigger than what we can understand.  By vastness of His very nature, God is incomprehensible.

If God were finite enough to be fully understood, He would lack the breadth of power to sustain the universe.  While all human knowledge can be documented, God’s knowledge and thoughts can never be exhaustively recorded or measured.  If God’s expansive knowledge could be captured, catalogued, and learned by others, then His wisdom would have limits.

Just as sparks leap upward from a fire and fly out of reach, so God’s wisdom, power, and knowledge soar far above humanity’s ability to grasp and understand them.

Because of our limited scope and vision, it is easy for many of us to take God to task – to criticize what WE see Him doing, to complain about His lack of action, to wonder if He is at work.

Because of God’s transcendence, however, He lives outside time and space.  He sees the future and the past at the same time.  The entire timeline of humanity lies before Him like a panoramic photograph.  He comprehends it all at once.

Is God uncaring because He doesn’t act?  No Because of His transcendence, He sees the outcome of every scenario and can select the best course of action.

Is God mean-spirited because He doesn’t relieve our suffering?  No.  Because of His ability to see the future, He knows how today’s events shape tomorrow.

How does God’s transcendence affect our view of God and our worship of Him?  To put it simply, we do not worship God because we have the human ability to raise Him above ourselves; we worship God because He is, by His very nature, above us.

How would you describe the transcendence of God to a child?

PRAYER

LORD GABAHH, please help me remember that Your ways are above mine.  Your thoughts, insights, and power are more than I can begin to comprehend.  Please help me trust in you even when I don’t understand what You are doing.  Amen

Published by liveinthelightofourlord

View all posts by liveinthelightofourlord