God save me from god
We each have an image of God. And in the God we imagine, we recreate ourselves (Psalm 115:8).
The God we worship is the person we become.
If we worship a God of wrath and harshness, we become a person of wrath and harshness.
If we worship a God who is aloof and unresponsive, we become a person who is aloof and unresponsive.
But if we worship a God of grace and love, we can become a person of grace and love.
If you’ve ever been angry at a God you don’t like—at a God who hasn’t done what you think he should—read these words by Brian McLaren.
“The fact that things have gone this way—that things have ended up like this—may lead them to believe that God has failed. And so, they may punish God with fury and insult, blasphemy and invective, mockery and derision.
Reactive believers may try to silence them. ‘Don’t talk that way!’ they’ll say. They might even threaten with damnation those who rage.
But what they don’t see is that the god the angry are punishing deserves to be punished. Beneath or behind that failed god is another G-d, one whose higher standard exposes the false, failed god as a fraud. The rage wouldn’t exist if some vision of the true God behind the false god didn’t remain.
Perhaps by raging against the failed image of God, it will fall, and behind it the true G-d will appear, the true G-d to whom Meister Eckhart prayed, ‘God save me from god.’”
– Brian McLaren, Naked Spirituality
The god who disappoints me is a misunderstanding of who the real God is. Because this is who the real God is . . .
- God is good (Psalm 136:1)
- God is light (1 John 1:5)
- God is merciful (Psalm 103:8)
- God is faithful (1 Corinthians 1:9)
- God is creative (Colossians 1:16)
- God is gracious (Psalm 145:8)
- God is compassionate (Micah 7:19)
- God is forgiving (Psalm 103:12)
- God is love (1 John 4:8)
May my inadequate god fade away. May the true God arise.
God save me from god.
And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
John 17:3
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I love A. W. Tozer. A godly man for his time … and ours.
May we fully grasp that deep, wide, and vast love of Christ …
Wednesday blessings to you, dear friend.
This is fresh revelation for me Lisa. I went through a long season of being angry with God. The words you share today perfectly express how it felt and reveals how by His grace I survived to worship the God that remained. “God save me from god.” Writing this one down in my journal. Thank you.
Oh… what good insight here.
Well said Lisa. Love the Tozer quote. I remember reading that in college and it made a huge impact.
Wow. Great concept. That’s a different way to look at things. Excellent wisdom, Lisa. Thanks for sharing this.
I’ve recently found myself in a spot of anger with God while battling through depression. This spoke to me where I needed; thanks for sharing!
Lisa, I’ve heard the sayings, “I want or I need my god to be.” Or “My god is.” Truthfully, I have been guilty of saying it myself. He is who He says He is. Glory! For He is so much more than my foolish thoughts and imaginings. I love the words, “The God we worship is the person we become.” Great thoughts here!
“The god who disappoints me is a misunderstanding of who the real God is.” Such a powerful truth, Lisa. Thanks so much for reminding me of God’s true character.
A lot to think about here.
I think that from here we can see aspects of God, much as the blind men ‘saw’ the elephant in its parts…as a tree, as a wall, as a snake.
But trapped as we are in the dimensionality of our human hearts, we are only seeing the shadows of what God really is, and we have to recognize that fact. The wrath is there, but it’s inseparable from Grace. The love is there, melded with stern-ness. And mercy and judgement temper one another, such that we can’t tease out one or the other.
In the end, we pay homage to a Mystery.
Yes. Yes. And yes. So much good here. Thanks for challenging my heart, Lisa.
I’ve always loved that quote by Tozer because there is so much truth in that statement. It is interesting to me that we read about the Israelites in the Old Testament and cannot believe that they would actually create little false idols to worship. We scoff at the idea that we would ever do something like that. Yet, that is exactly what we do when we are disappointed in God. We are disappointed in the idol we have imagined. We have created our own idea of God, rather than trusting in His goodness. This is something I am striving for in my walk – I want to praise God no matter my circumstances rather than try to convince Him of how things should be. Thanks for the great post!