Grateful for who he is:

I was driving to church recently, and I was listening to worship music.  During a commercial break, there was a man that came on that said it was always important to have a grateful heart.  This is definitely something that I have heard before, and maybe I have even written a blog post or two about being grateful.  Therefore, nothing in this statement was too groundbreaking for me, a good reminder, but nothing I haven’t heard before.  However, then he said, not to just be grateful about what God has done, but about who he is.  This struck me and made me really think.  When I talk about being grateful with God, I usually am only focused on what he has done in my life.  While it is important to be grateful for the wonderful things that God has done in our lives, it is also important to be grateful for the characteristics that God possesses, and that he uses with his people.  This blog post is going to dive into the characteristics of God that I am incredibly grateful for.  

God is just.  God cares about justice.  When I was in college, I learned about God’s justice and how that can be a positive thing.  It can be easy to think about God’s justice as him being a judgemental and mean God who only wants to condemn and punish his people.  Yes God is a judge, but this is a benefit for us.  There is a lot of corruption and evil in the world.  We have seen that more and more throughout watching the news the last couple of years.  The Lord as a judge and as a just God cares about fixing the evil that is in the world.  I am grateful that God does care about the corruption in the world, and that he doesn’t just try to look over it as not something he has to concern himself over.  He will take care of his people and seek the justice in the world that needs to be sought.  It may not always be right away, but we can rest assured that it will be handled at some point. 

God is powerful.  He has created the entire world from the oceans, to the mountains, to the littlest of bugs and plants.  He also did that all in only a week, actually less than a week but in SIX days.  The Lord also has the power to heal, to stop wars, and to change a heart of someone who is completely evil.  There is nothing that the Lord can’t do. Luke 1:37 says, “For nothing will be impossible with God.” I can usually get into the mindset that there are certain items that are impossible and can not be done.  However, God is completely powerful and has the complete ability.  While again, I have been told that my entire life through going to Sunday school, I don’t always trust that God really can do everything.  The challenge I have for myself is to trust in God’s power more and more and to pray to him when something seems too out of reach.  

God is sovereign.  Wow, something that I believe we really need to be reminded of in 2020 and now 2021.  The world is nuts and COVID has definitely made things quite a bit more challenging and stressful.  It can be very hard to think that there is a plan.  I know that all of our personal plans have definitely taken a change in the past year.  However, God still does have a plan, and his plan has not been changed.  The Lord is working all things for his good.  Romans 8:28 even says,  “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”  God loves his people and has created a loving plan for you.  If you are exhausted like I have been lately, and maybe even feel that God has forgotten about you, I do want you to be encouraged that God does have a plan and is always thinking about and loving you.  

God is faithful and God is forgiving.  God stays faithful to his people, even when we are not faithful to him.  We often will sin against God, and yet he will forgive us.  There are often so many times we will turn away from the Lord.  An older hymn says it best when it says, “Prone to wander, Lord I feel it.”  I am prone to wander away from the Lord.  I am prone to follow more and more of the world’s ways.  Yet every time that I go back to the Lord, he is still there.  He is waiting to hold me in his arms once again.  He doesn’t want me to go away from him.  It is like the son that was returning to the Father in the story of the Prodigal Son.  Not only does the Lord forgive his people, but he also removes it from his memory and sends it as far away from the east is to the West.  The Lord doesn’t keep track of all the wrongs that we have done.  We as people can often forgive, but then hold onto what the person has done wrong, so we can use it against them in the future.  The Lord has no desire to do that, he just wants to love and forgive us, so we can continually have a strong relationship with the Lord.  

God is love.  This is the last thing that I am mentioning, but it is probably the most important of the characteristics.   The Lord is love.  He is not just loving, but he is the full definition of love.  This means that he is patient, kind, self-less, continuous, and doesn’t keep count of all the wrongs that we have done.  1 John 4:7-8 discusses how God is entirely love, and people are only true Christians if they love and show love to others.  “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.”  God is the perfect example of love, and it is continuous.  You can’t lose his love, and he made a way for those to be with him for the rest of eternity.  

The Lord has done amazing things for us all.  He has blessed us in many ways.  It is very important that we thank the Lord for the amazing things he has done for us, but it is just as important that we thank the Lord for just being who he is.  Even when the world is rough and we are tired, and it can feel like there is nothing to be thankful for in the world, we can know that our God is just, powerful, sovereign, faithful, forgiving, and the full definition of love.  That is in and of itself, something that needs to be praised and that we need to have grateful hearts for.