Who is God?
What is He like? What does He do and what pleases Him? What is His order of things and what does He require?
So often we come to our Bible devotions pretty self-centered.
Answer me. Encourage me. Teach me. Help me.
Because of course, we are the suns of our own Lilliputian galaxies.
When all along God has given us His Word as a stunning revelation of Who He is.
Yes, God will meet need and teach us and encourage us, but there is something far greater: when we open our Bibles, we worship the One who fashioned the galaxy, who is infinitely beyond this galaxy and yet makes Himself known to us.
We read our Bible to know Who God is, what He does and how we can align our lives to Him.
When Jesus pierced time to dwell on earth, he came to a religious people who knew about him, but didn’t know him. The Jewish elite could keep the law like nobody’s business but they could not comprehend a God above the law.
Their tight little boxes of Who God is did not fit cleanly around Jesus.
They constantly challenged him:
- How can you say you forgive sins?1
- Why do you eat with sinners?2
- Why don’t your disciples fast like our disciples?3
- Why are your disciples picking grain on the Sabbath?4
- How dare you break the Sabbath by healing on it?!5
John 5 tells of Jesus coming to the pool of Siloam in Jerusalem. When he saw a man who’d been lame for 38 years lying there, Jesus asked him if he wanted to get well and then healed him, commanding him to pick up his mat and walk.
Why did Jesus heal this man? He hadn’t even asked for it. Nothing is said about Jesus healing any of the other paralyzed and lame lying at that same pool.
I believe this man’s healing – compassionate as it was – was secondary to Jesus’ real work: revealing Who He is.
When I read this story, my heart is immediately drawn to what Jesus can do for me. He can heal me. He can take care of my need. He can reach down in my pain and take it away.
Yes, He can.
But if I stop there, I’m stuck in the claustrophobic cosmos of my own need.
Jesus is revealing Himself in this passage and we are the lame if we miss it.
This passage explodes with declaration of Who Jesus is.
Jesus revealed His authority as the Son of God. Second person of the Trinity. All-powerful. All-worthy. All holy. So far outside the bounds of the law and yet the only true Righteousness who could fulfill the law’s righteous requirements.
And suddenly, magnifying God for Who He is realigns the trajectory of my heart and thoughts. I can worship and adore and enjoy and marvel. I can repent and grieve and realign so that my life revolves around His.
And my need? My fear? My worry? Only when I know Who God is can I rest in Him with every need, fear and worry.
No more 15 minutes of Bible reading to see what You have for me.
No more coming to You to meet me.
No more reading Your Word to affirm me.
No more self-centered Bible study.
Now this is eternal life: that they know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent. (John 17:3)
1 Mark 2:7
2 Matthew 9:11
3 Matthew 9:14
4 Matthew 12:1-2
5 John 5:16-18
THANKYOU LISA, THAT WAS THE BIGGEST EYE OPENER I HAVE READ IN A LONG TIME, FROM HUMAN HANDS.
Blessings, Mike.
Love this!
These words have been teaching me, Alana.
Lisa, you’re such a good teacher.
Thank you friend! I appreciate that coming someone whose writing I so respect!
Love this, Lisa. Yes, when we approach God’s word to find more of Him rather than just list our needs we can truly see that He is more than able to do above all we could ever ask. He is a mighty and magnificent Father and it’s a privilege to enjoy an intimate relationship with Him.
He is; it is the best. <3
Love, love, love this. Pinned it.
Thank you, Kristi. 🙂
Yes!!!! I’ve been struggling for MONTHS trying to find the right ‘devotional’ to begin my day and I just couldn’t find myself being consistent with it. Since I started my 100Days reading I’ve been completely faithful and it hasn’t been a struggle. This is HUGE for me!!!!!
Gods word has become such a wonderful and integral part of my day and it is truly transforming me and how I think, live, and parent. Pure, unbiased, no extra author, GODS WORD. It is just beautiful.
Getting my daily foundation in His Word grounds me, and then getting to hear your revelations on the same passages brings confirmation, encouragement, and new ideas to think and pray on. I cannot say thank you enough to you, or to the Holy Spirit for helping me stumble across your site a few months ago. You are a wonderful treasure to have found Lisa!
Jenna, cannot tell you how much this warms my heart! Praise the Lord.. Once we taste and see that the Lord is good, well, that’s the pull we need.
Thank you, Lisa! SO needed this…God’s perfect timing…
Me too. Digging deep to try to comprehend and know our good God.
Love this so much. We all have this tendency! I used to post a prayer every morning in a FB group and I learned over the years I did it that the prayers about ourselves got way more likes than the ones focusing solely on who God is. (Not judging anyone for that – I was the one posting them, after all – just an observation.) But the the real answer to every one of those prayers I posted about “Help us with xyz” was found in the prayers declaring His attributes as our everything. Thank you for pointing people in the right direction! Keep it up!
That’s really interesting, Leann. I see the same thing with memes that circulate.
Thank you, Lisa! Once again God has used you to not-so-gently smack me “upside the head”!! Thank you for allowing HIM to use you to challenge, encourage, admonish and lead us.
Jamie, I think we have seasons where we are so needy and God’s Word is definitely a balm for us. I’ve been there! I just don’t want to stay there and miss focusing on God. <3
Lisa, love this, as I lead our neighborhood Bible study this week, I’m gonna change up our prayer time beforehand and ask Him to reveal to us who He is. 🙂
Love this post, Lisa. This “me” business has been on my mind lately too. Help me Father to live my life for you. Too many mes, too many my, I, not enough of God. Thank you for the perspective shift and the true realignment of where our study of God and His word should be centered.
Such beautiful words Lisa! Love that you are encouraging us to go to His Word without an agenda. Love this: “Only when I know Who God is can I rest in Him with every need, fear and worry.” Amen!
Wow, Lisa. This is convicting. I realize that I too come to Jesus so often to see what He has for me rather than to see who He is. Thanks for the challenge you’re offering us!