What is God really like?

A GOD WORTH KNOWING

 

Knowing God starts like any other relationship – spending time together, getting to know each other. Talking and sharing. Whispering secrets.

 

The difference is there’s no need to hold back. God knows everything about us, after all. You won’t shock him and he’s very good at keeping confidences.

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The first thing is to get a clear understanding of what he isn’t.

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• God isn’t an old man with a long white beard sitting on a cloud. 

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• He’s not a kind of spiritual Santa who gives us whatever we want on demand, like spoiled children.

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• He’s not a fierce and awful judge, constantly spying on us so he can punish us for every wrong move.

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The Bible gives us a clear picture of what God is like, so we don’t need to rely on our imagination.

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• God is eternal. He lives outside time – in fact, he created time. He doesn’t get old or change in any way.

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• God is a spirit, a supernatural being, not a human. He is all-powerful, so nothing is impossible to him. He can do anything and never makes mistakes.

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• God is holy and cannot tolerate wrongdoing in any form, but he is also loving, patient and kind. He knows and understands us completely, but it doesn’t put him off.

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• Best of all – God forgives! He’s willing to wipe away the past if we truly want to change our lives and start again. We just have to ask.

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A God like this is worth knowing. And there’s more.

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JESUS: GOD IN HUMAN FORM

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God wanted us to know him, but he knew we’d find it hard to imagine what he was like. So he came to earth as a human baby – Jesus Christ.

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As an adult Jesus spent three years teaching about God’s love, healing the sick and impacting the lives of thousands.

 

He was a celebrity 2000 years before the word was invented.

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But there’s even more.

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Jesus knew he would get into trouble with the religious authorities. They didn’t want to hear about a loving God. They preferred their own brand of religion – and the power it gave them over other people.

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Yet his message was so important he carried on anyway.

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Eventually – just as he predicted – Jesus was betrayed by a friend for money. He was arrested and tried for blasphemy, tortured for fun, then executed like a criminal.

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But this was much more than the tragic death of an innocent man.

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THE GOOD NEWS

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When Jesus died on the cross, he took God’s punishment for all the wrongdoing and sin in the world, once and for all. He died in our place.

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This is the gospel, which means 'good news'.

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In other words, if we are willing to believe and accept it we can go free and never face God’s punishment for the things we’ve done.

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Jesus didn’t stay dead. How could anything be stronger than God?

 

He came back to life on the third day, as he had promised. Love defeated death and the way to heaven is wide open.

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It’s a great place to start your relationship with God.

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You may like to use a simple prayer, like this:

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Jesus, thank you for taking my punishment and dying in my place. I’m sorry for all the wrong things I’ve done in the past.

 

I want to change my life and get to know you. Please forgive me, come into my heart right now and help me live your way from now on.

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Amen.

 

Anyone who has prayed this and meant it has been forgiven. They are now a child of God and their brand new life is just beginning!

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This is what the Bible calls 'being born again', and it's the start of the most exciting journey you will ever take.