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Today, our topic is God. Now to be really clear right up front, we’re not saying that God needs to shift. What were saying is all too often, our perspective on who God is and how he feels about us needs to shift!
And if I were going to encapsulate this shift that needs to take place into once phrase, it would be this – God is not aloof, God is personal.
I know “aloof” isn’t a word that we use allot, but it works really well here. My dictionary defines aloof like this – “not friendly or forthcoming; cold and distant.”
Now maybe those aren’t the exact words you would use to describe God this morning. But I’ve walked away from allot of conversations with people saying to myself that is exactly how they feel about God, that’s not how they would have described their feelings; but their actions or in-action, their attitudes, their outlook on life – all said God is distant, cold, and uncaring!
Having a proper image of God is vitally important!
Because here is the truth, “Nothing in all your life will impact your relationship with God, your relationship with people, your self-view, your decisions, and your purpose like the way you think of God” (Chip Engram).
And here is something that I always find interesting, when I talk with people who think that God is cold and distant – they always think they are the only one’s who feel like that.
But it’s really a very common feeling, in fact one of the longest stories in all of the bible is devoted to breaking this misconception that God is cold and distant.
In the old testament, God chooses one group of people that He want to experience His love, grace, and forgiveness like no others. These people are called the Israelites, now since that time God has opened up that love, grace, and forgiveness to us all. But in this time period, this was especially for Israel.
And about 90% of the Old Testament is God showing Israel how deeply He loves them, Israel forgetting or ignoring God’s love getting into trouble and then asking for God’s forgiveness and blessing once again.
One such story is the story of the Exodus.
Israel, God’s chosen people were enslaved to the Egyptians. And the conditions had just been getting worse and worse, until they cried out to God for help.
God sends them Moses. God does miracle after miracle, to free the Israelites from the Egyptians. And after escaping, they are initially very grateful but they soon complain that they are hungry. So you know what God does – the next morning when the entire nation got up their was enough bread on the ground to feed everyone. The same thing happened day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year.
Then you know what happened? Israel said, you know when we were enslaved to Egypt, we had pots of meat to eat. Why has God brought us out into this desert and abandoned us? In other words, because God only gives us bread every day he must not really care for us. So guess what happens – God gives them meat eat. Day after day, week after week, year after year – God provided this meat.
Then you know what happened? Israel got tired of walking around the desert, and they complained they were moving around aimlessly, that God wasn’t really taking them anywhere. So you know what God did, He said o.k. here is a cloud that will lead you by day and a pillar of fire that will lead you by night. And so day after day, week after week, year after year – God lead them by a cloud in the day and a pillar of fire at night.
Are you sensing a pattern?
Honestly the pattern continues throughout the whole Bible/History Israel/we turn away, complain, say God isn’t really here for us, and we mess things up and God rescues us.
And do you know what the root cause of everyone of Israel’s complaints was – a misconception of who God was. God’s distant, God doesn’t care.
I want to help everyone of us make that mental shift from a distant God to a close and caring God and to do that I need to take us to two verses today.
The first is 1 Peter 5:7, “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.”
I don’t know that I can say it anymore clearly than that. God cares. And notice, that verse says exactly what God cares about – He cares about all your anxiety’s. It doesn’t say that God only cares about the big ones. It doesn’t say that God only cares about the spiritual ones. It says God cares about it all!
The second verse you need to hear today is Hebrews 4:15-16:
“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”
This verse tells us that God isn’t up in heaven twiddling his thumbs, but that God is deeply personal. Jesus didn’t come as some religious leader that was isolated from every temptation and trouble that we face day in and day out. But Jesus came and was tested and tempted in every way. Jesus understands every struggle your facing in a personal way.
The bottom line is that: God’s ins’t distant and far off but that God is deeply connected to us.
So if we can take these two concepts that: 1) God cares and 2) God is connected to us then all of a sudden God gets personal.
And let me tell you what happens then, when God gets personal – we get confident!
When we get confident in who God is, it changes who we are!
