He Wants to Be in Your Life!

Who is God? Or, what is God?

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, non-Christian religions would define God as “a superhuman being or spirit worshipped as having power over nature or human fortunes; a deity …” or someone of divine nature. The dictionary gives a second definition in the Christian, monotheistic sense as God being “the creator and ruler of the universe and source of all moral authority; the supreme being.” At first glance, to a middle- or high-schooler, both definitions give levitating dictator-ish vibes. “Worshipped as having power over nature” and “source of all moral authority” seem to be pretty strong statements. So the question still stands: who or what is God?

When we try to describe someone or something, we tend to talk about things they’ve done or accomplished. However, we frequently fail to discuss the nature or the character of someone. For example, if I wanted to describe one of my friends to you, I might say, “She’s really good at playing the cello or at ad-libbing bedtime stories.” This might give you some insight, but if you’re asking about her, you might want to know more about her tendencies, how might she respond to different situations and who she is as a person. I might say, “She is patient and seeks to understand rather than to respond. She likes to think things through and is very intentional. And she likes to have fun.” This gives you a greater idea of who she is as a person. See the difference?

Sometimes when it comes to God, we tend to stop at the first set of questions. We let actions and selective statements obscure our vision and perception. I grew up Catholic, but maybe you didn’t.

Even with my Catholic upbringing and education, I didn’t know the nature of God or His character. At Mass and in my religion classes, I heard a lot about rules and commandments. Up until I was 20, the Catholic faith was just a bunch of rules. This might be how you view Christianity, and that is understandable.

This perspective made me see God as just a taskmaster. If you look at the Old Testament, the first part of the Bible, there are a bunch of examples of punishment when the chosen people of God didn’t follow His commandments.

So let’s go back to the first question: who is God? Some think the Christian God is far off and distant, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. Psalm 139, in the Old Testament, says, “O LORD, you have searched me and known me!” Different translations have it written, “Lord, you know everything there is to know about me.” King David, the author of the Psalm and a king of God’s people in biblical times, isn’t writing this depicting God as a stalker, but as someone who is so invested in your life. It goes on to say, “You go before me and follow me. You place your hand of blessing on my head.” Why? To show God goes before and behind to protect you from anything trying to harm you. My favorite translation of this verse says, “You’ve gone into my future to prepare the way, and in kindness, you follow behind me to spare me from the harm of my past.” Preparation and kindness. This doesn’t sound like something that would come from someone who has malice against you.

So what do we know about God so far? He’s not distant. He wants to be in your life. He prepares for you and doesn’t want you to be harmed. This sounds like an active God, not a passive one.

So what should you know next? God LOVES you. And it’s not just the obligatory love we see so often in today’s society, but rather a love that is faithful and chooses to put others before oneself. The faithfulness of God is, personally, my favorite attribute of his nature. Merriam-Webster says, “FAITHFUL implies unswerving adherence to a person or thing or to the oath or promise by which a tie was contracted.” So, no matter what, God will not break His promise, His covenant. Just think about our lives – how often are we susceptible to breaking our promises out of convenience, forgetfulness, or just laziness? Timothy, one of the New Testament writers, says this about God, “… if we are faithless, he remains faithful – for he cannot deny himself.” Like, woah. “He cannot DENY himself.” Timothy isn’t just describing a quality of God, but rather the what-ness of God. Like, what God is, is faithful.

God loves you. The whole Bible is ultimately a love story and one about sacrifice. Here’s the gist: God loves YOU. Not like y’all you, but you, right now, reading this sentence. He LOVES you.

When Adam and Eve sinned in Genesis and sin entered into the world, God had a plan of redemption for YOU. Even though Jesus came into the world 2,000 years ago, God had YOU in mind when He came. He knew you would sin and He loved you too much to leave you in your sin. He loved you so much that God sent His son Jesus to pay the price of your sins. St. Paul, who wrote most of the New Testament, writes, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” When the price of your sin was death, God said NO and sent His perfect son to die in your place, forever removing the debt. And the crazy thing is this: God doesn’t just love you, He actually likes you. Like, He wants to be around you.

God isn’t far off. He’s not distant. He wants to be so involved in your life and He will be if you let Him. The answers to who is God and what is God are literally infinite. And so I encourage you, if you want to find the answers to those questions, simply ASK Him. He’s waiting for you.