After my last post, The Holy Trinity, I want to share more about God the Father, our loving, righteous, almighty Creator.
I humbly confess that my knowledge is far too finite to adequately define the immense and awesome character of our Heavenly Father, but what I do know and what I have experienced I want to share with you.
My goal is to give greater insight to those who may not know or understand His perfect character and love for us.
God is Love
Imagine having the absolute ability to reign supreme and desire to create the beauty that we see and experience all around us in nature.
I think of many of the places that I’ve traveled and the beauty that I’ve seen in remote places as well as here in the U.S.—mountains, seashores, forest trails, and man-made, albeit God-inspired monuments and buildings.
My mind goes to views of Earth from space that I’ve seen on TV and images of galaxies and celestial beauty that are too magnificent to fully grasp.
Let’s even consider the intricate creation of the human body and mind which were minutely crafted by our Father in Heaven.
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.
Genesis 1:26-31
Why did God create all that we are and all that we have the blessing to experience?
Perfect LOVE by our perfect Father and Creator.
God existed since the beginning of time and in His benevolence, He fashioned mankind and breathed life into us simply because He loved us. (Genesis 2:7)
Our loving Father created us because He wanted to, and He gave us His blessing to enjoy all the majestic beauty around us.
He gave us the intellect and ability to be able to not only enjoy, but to steward or manage His creation.
After the disobedience of Adam and Eve, the first created man and woman, sin entered the world and has plagued creation ever since.
No amount of striving to be perfect could help mankind overcome sin.
God had the solution for this. He gave us His most prized possession, His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to be the perfect and ultimate sacrificial Lamb.
I wonder how many of us would give any of our children, not just our only beloved child, to bear the sins of our human race.
I wouldn’t be able to! I’m sure you would say the same. But God did!
“This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”
1 John 4:9-10
THIS is love—forgiving those who don’t deserve it by giving your all.
God is Almighty
God our Father is sovereign. He reigns over all creation, because He created it.
Therefore, He has the right to give us instruction how to live our lives and worship Him in praise and obedience.
Our pride keeps us from following God and is a root cause of disobedience, which if we insist on harboring, will lead to painful consequences.
I don’t know about you, but I’d had enough painful consequences from doing things my way that I finally surrendered to God and His ways.
For those who insist on doing things their way and refuse to follow God regardless of the consequences, only loss and perdition await.
This is exactly what happened to Lucifer, better known as Satan, the most beautiful angel created.
In his pride, Satan wanted to be God. He wasn’t satisfied with being the most beautiful angel—he wanted to take God’s place and sovereignty. (Isaiah 14:12-15)
His big mistake was misunderstanding that he too was created and powerless compared to God. (Luke 10:18; Revelation 12:7-9)
God our Father is not only majestically creative, He is all-knowing and all-powerful.
To whom then will you compare me,
that I should be like him? says the Holy One.
Lift up your eyes on high and see:
who created these?
He who brings out their host by number,
calling them all by name;
by the greatness of his might
and because he is strong in power,
not one is missing. . .
Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
his understanding is unsearchable.
Isaiah 40:25-28
There is none that can take God our Father’s place, none who can use their wisdom to outsmart Him, and none who can win any war waged against Him.
God is Just
Many wonder if God reigns supreme why He allows so much evil to take place.
Some even accuse God of perpetrating evil, and for this reason refuse to worship Him.
The issue is they don’t know God’s ways because they refuse to learn about Him. If they would spend the time needed to search out God and His ways, they would come to a different conclusion.
God has an incorruptible character, and He does what is right. He is true to Himself no matter what one may think of Him. He does not bend to public opinion.
God does not perpetrate evil. He can only do good because it is His nature.
Further, He gives His creatures the ability to reason and make choices.
Satan had the ability to reason and choose to submit to God, but he did not. He chose to worship himself and his pride took over; he simply refused to give God His rightful due in worship.
When Satan was cast out of heaven, he set out to destroy God’s beloved creation on Earth—mankind and nature.
This is how sin entered our world: Adam and Eve disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden through temptation by Satan. (Genesis 3)
You may ask, why didn’t God stop Satan? The answer again is free will.
Adam and Eve had the choice to obey God (by not eating from the forbidden tree), but they did not.
God will most certainly stop Satan by destroying him one day, a day of God’s choosing in the future.
In the meantime, our Heavenly Father is patient with us, pursuing us to turn from our sin and follow Him.
But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
2 Peter 3:8-9
Because God is our righteous Judge, He cannot tolerate sin, He cannot approve of sin, He cannot link Himself to sin in any way.
When we sin, we are separated from God; but in His goodness, He has chosen to forgive us.
This forgiveness is through His only Son, Jesus Christ. Forgiveness is only granted through Christ and no other way. (John 14:6)
If we refuse God’s Son, we will be eternally lost and suffer God’s judgment.
I pray that anyone who does not yet belong to God in Christ will exercise their free will and accept Jesus as LORD and Savior today.
God not only gave us life, but He also provided everything we will ever need to live successfully in Him now to eternity.
Enjoy the song below in worship to God.
If you want to have a relationship with God and are not sure how or where to start, see my previous posts Relationship with God and Relationship with God – Part 2.