Tag Archives: god’s character

July 29, 2026 · 5:51 AM

Seeing God Clearly

One of the quotes I think about often is from A. W. Tozer. He said, “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” How you view God governs everything else about you. Whether your view is accurate or distorted, it shapes how you interpret life, make decisions, pray, how you treat people and respond to pressure. Because of that, it’s important that we read through Scripture to see how God has revealed Himself through the lens of eternity instead of making our determination of how we see Him in the moment we’re standing in.

I love the Parable of the Talents from Matthew 25. Today I want to focus on the guy who received one talent and buried it in the sand. When the master asked him what he did with his talent, he responded, “Master, I knew you were a harsh man, harvesting crops you didn’t plant and gathering crops you didn’t cultivate. I was afraid I would lose your money, so I hid it in the earth. Look, here is your money back” (NLT). He viewed God as a harsh task master and so he didn’t do anything with what was given to him. He let fear and a distorted view keep him from making and impact. Instead, he should have seen Him as generous. The master gave three servants talents. Then when the other two returned them to the master, the master returned the full amount back to them.

In Psalm 145:8-9, the psalmist described God by saying, “The Lord is merciful and compassionate, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. The Lord is good to everyone. He showers compassion on all his creation.” God is merciful, compassionate, good and generous. He’s not waiting for you to fail so He can get angry at you. Does your view of God line up with this? If not, you may find yourself like the third guy in that parable. Don’t go another day with a distorted view of God. It’s holding you back from doing the most with what you’ve been given. Let this verse restore your trust in God and reshape how you live. Remember, seeing God clearly is the most important thing about you.

Photo by Erhan Dayı from Pexels.

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February 29, 2024 · 5:30 AM

Easy To Please

I’ve worked for some people that were easy to please, and I’ve also worked for some that were hard to please. One of my bosses said to me, “Chris, I wish I had five guys just like you working here.” I replied, “Wow! Thanks.” Sternly he looked at me and said, “It wasn’t a compliment. I have twenty of you right now.” It was funny, but I don’t know to this day if he was joking or not. I was always afraid to ask questions for fear I would get in trouble, or worse, ridiculed. I’ve had other bosses who I thought were going to be tough to please when I met them, but once I got to know them, they were a lot different than I had thought. One of those was seriously invested in my future and helped me advance all throughout my career. My preconceived notions changed once I got to know him.

One of my first preconceived notions of God was that He was this old guy in Heaven, with a long white beard, looking down ready to blast me for messing up. I often felt that His love for me was dependent on my performance, much like some of the bosses I’ve had. As long as I did things the right way, He was happy with me. If I messed up, He was ready to rain down hell fire and brimstone on me. However, the more I’ve gotten to know Him, the more I’ve found what Paul discovered in Romans 8. Nothing can stop Him from loving me. Like a parent, He loves me as His child and is not waiting for me to mess up. On the contrary, He’s there wanting me to excel, to grow and to be who He created me to be.

David discovered this about God too. In Psalm 25:8, he wrote, “When people turn to you, they discover how easy you are to please—so faithful and true! Joyfully you teach them the proper path, even when they go astray” (TPT). God is not impossible to please. In fact, He’s easy to please, and He’s not ready to smite you when you mess up. Joyfully, He’s ready to help you back up and point you to the right path. He knows our weaknesses, our propensities and our failures, and He loves us still. The plan He has for us is hard at times, but He’s right there cheering us on and giving us instructions on how to complete it. You don’t have to fear losing His love over your faults. You don’t have to hide your mistakes or be afraid to ask Him for help. He loves you and is cheering you on as you go through life. Like a good father, He’s easy to please.

Photo by Karl Hedin on Unsplash

Throwback Thursday is a feature I’m using to help build some margin into my schedule to pursue other ventures. Each Thursday I’ll be bringing you a previously written devotional that still speaks encouragement to us from God’s Word.

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October 17, 2019 · 5:59 AM

God’s Faithfulness

What would happen if you held a pen out in front of you and let go? If you did it a hundred times? A million times? You’d get the same result. The pen would drop to the ground. No matter how many times you let go, that pen will fall to the ground. Why? Because the Law of Gravity is at work. No matter what you do or what else happens, each time you let go of that pen, it’s going to fall because of the Law of Gravity. It works 100% of the time no matter what.

The same is true when it comes to the faithfulness of God. You can trust it 100% of the time. No matter how many times you rely on God, He will be faithful. Why? Because it’s part of who He is. As much as the Law of Gravity is a part of our world, faithfulness is a part of who God is. It’s something you can rely on over and over again no matter what happens in your life. Your circumstances don’t change the faithfulness of God. The sooner we understand that, the greater the relationship we can have with Him.

Over and over again, we look at things that happen to us and we blame God. We think He must not care or that He’s mad at us. Ever since the Garden of Eden, the Law of Sin has been at work on our world. It is what causes death, decay, destruction, and the things that affect us negatively. It is the ongoing consequence of sin entering the world. It has nothing to do with God’s faithfulness and everything to do with our unfaithfulness. God is the one who comes to bring us life, and has redeemed us.

One of the greatest lies of the enemy is that the bad things in the world are a result of God not being faithful to us. Paul understood this and wrote, “But the Lord is faithful,” (NLT) in 2 Thessalonians 3:3 to remind us. He knew we would need to be reminded over and over again that God is faithful no matter what happens. He is the one who works in all circumstances for your good. It’s time we quit blaming Him for the bad things that happen to us, and start learning to trust His faithfulness to work them out for our benefit. 

Photo by Zac Durant on Unsplash

Throwback Thursday is a feature I’m using to help build some margin into my schedule to pursue other writing ventures. Each Thursday I’ll be bringing you a previously written devotional that still speaks encouragement to us from God’s Word.

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July 24, 2018 · 5:56 AM

God’s Consistency

I’ve been through times and situations where I’ve wondered where God was. When I’m neck deep in problems and my prayers don’t seem to be reaching Heaven, I start to think God doesn’t hear me, or worse, that He doesn’t care. Have you been there? It’s a rough place to be. There have been moments where I’ve been desperate that if God didn’t show up, I didn’t know how I was going to be able to go on. When I look back, I can see God’s hand and how He was growing my faith, but in those moments, I felt alone and that God had forgotten me. That’s a tough place to be emotionally and spiritually.

I have a friend who says, “God is the God of the eleventh hour and fifty-ninth minute.” It’s not that He doesn’t hear us, see us or know where we are. It’s that He has His own time table. I also believe that many times He uses people to answer our needs, but we aren’t always very responsive to His promptings. We usually wait to do what He asks us to do because we’re unsure we’re hearing Him correctly. If you can’t see Him moving, it doesn’t mean He doesn’t care or that He’s sitting back doing nothing while you’re going down.

I love Isaiah 40 because it reminds us of the greatness of God, especially when we’re doubting Him. Toward the end, He speaks to Israel, but the message is to us as well. Verses 27-28 say, “Why would you ever complain, O Jacob, or, whine, Israel, saying, “ GOD has lost track of me. He doesn’t care what happens to me”? Don’t you know anything? Haven’t you been listening? GOD doesn’t come and go. God lasts” (MSG). If you’re in one of those moments, take your eyes off your problems and look at the consistency of who God is. Remember that He’s there, He Sees you and He’s growing your faith.

Photo courtesy of Images by Chauvin on Instagram.

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