God's Relationship Status
This post is the third in a series on the Word of God. The first can be found here, and the second here. Thanks for reading!
When I was but a wee little Christ-follower growing up in the Assemblies of God, one of the first things I learned was that God was a "personal God." That was the phrase everyone used- my pastor, my Sunday School teacher, my mom, everyone- "personal God." I was taught that what that meant was that God was a warm, fuzzy, happy fellow who loved me very much and wanted to have a personal relationship with me. I could talk to him, and He could talk back to me.
All of that is true (except for maybe the fuzzy part. And I don't like calling God a "fellow," though I called Him a "Dude" last time so I really have no right to complain), and it all flows out of our characterization of God as "personal." But that's not the word actually means. What it means is that, simply put, God is a person. He has the attributes of a person, among which, as we discussed last time, are the desire- no, the need- to communicate, to talk to other people- more broadly speaking, to be in relationship. After all, what's the first concrete thing God does in the Bible? Genesis 1:
1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
The first thing God does with the world is talk to it! And then in verse five, he talks again. And again in verse six, eight, nine, ten, eleven, fourteen... basically the entire first chapter of the Bible is God talking. To be fair, yes, when God talks, some crazy stuff starts to happen. But He's still talking. Not killing other Gods and making worlds out of their bones, like in pagan myths. Just talking.
If this is the sort of person God is- a "talker"- then how could we expect that He would do other than talk to us? If God Himself needs to be in relationship with, why wouldn't He seek us out?
....but does He need to?
Tell me what you think: Did God make human beings because He needed someone to talk to? Was He lonely before Genesis 1? In other words, what's God's relationship status? Is He looking for something more, or is He fine where He is? Does God need us?
When I was but a wee little Christ-follower growing up in the Assemblies of God, one of the first things I learned was that God was a "personal God." That was the phrase everyone used- my pastor, my Sunday School teacher, my mom, everyone- "personal God." I was taught that what that meant was that God was a warm, fuzzy, happy fellow who loved me very much and wanted to have a personal relationship with me. I could talk to him, and He could talk back to me.
All of that is true (except for maybe the fuzzy part. And I don't like calling God a "fellow," though I called Him a "Dude" last time so I really have no right to complain), and it all flows out of our characterization of God as "personal." But that's not the word actually means. What it means is that, simply put, God is a person. He has the attributes of a person, among which, as we discussed last time, are the desire- no, the need- to communicate, to talk to other people- more broadly speaking, to be in relationship. After all, what's the first concrete thing God does in the Bible? Genesis 1:
1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
The first thing God does with the world is talk to it! And then in verse five, he talks again. And again in verse six, eight, nine, ten, eleven, fourteen... basically the entire first chapter of the Bible is God talking. To be fair, yes, when God talks, some crazy stuff starts to happen. But He's still talking. Not killing other Gods and making worlds out of their bones, like in pagan myths. Just talking.
If this is the sort of person God is- a "talker"- then how could we expect that He would do other than talk to us? If God Himself needs to be in relationship with, why wouldn't He seek us out?
....but does He need to?
Tell me what you think: Did God make human beings because He needed someone to talk to? Was He lonely before Genesis 1? In other words, what's God's relationship status? Is He looking for something more, or is He fine where He is? Does God need us?