“Understanding God”
Dear Writer, I hope you had a fantastic week as you began to explore the unique combination of inputs that shape your voice! Today, we’re going wade into deeper waters and examine how our theology impacts our unique
message and expression…
You see, we all have a unique concept of God, and while He has innumerable unchanging qualities, our understanding of and experience with Him is often as individually distinctive as we are. That understanding forms a key part of our development process, including the way we live and write and communicate.
But before we dive in, let’s take a look at some others whose theology—whose study, experience, and understanding of God Himself—dramatically shaped their life’s work…
Theology in History
Brother Lawrence is an excellent example of a man whose theology shaped the course of his life and message. As a young man, Brother Lawrence had enlisted as a soldier in the French army. One day in the middle of a battlefield, he saw a barren tree he knew would blossom in a few short months. The scene arrested his heart and wrought a profound understanding of the power of God’s love to transform a man’s life. Later, when Brother Lawrence returned from the army due to an injury, he became a Carmelite monk in order to pursue and experience that love more and more deeply.
As Brother Lawrence embraced God’s love through this simple life, he discovered more and more the joy and experience God’s profound presence, peace, and love in the commonplace and everyday happenings of life. From this sprang “The Practice of the Presence of God,” a collection of several of Brother Lawrence’s letters written to those who often asked him how they could experience the peace he’d found.
Theology in the Bible
Job is another great example of a man whose theology left an indelible impact not only on him but throughout the ages. When disaster befell him, Job refused to be swayed from his belief in his own righteousness and in God’s overall sovereign goodness and justice. The very intensity of his belief caused Job to tenaciously refuse the pressure of his friends and wife to embrace lies about his own life or about God. Because here’s the thing, writer…
Life and the enemy will always pressure us to believe lies, because what we know about God is unequivocally what causes us to rise up stand strong. And, when we embrace that knowledge wholeheartedly as Job did, not only can that understanding impact generations, but it leads to deeper understanding of God himself. Because here’s the thing: as we act boldly on what we know of God, we discover more and more of who He is.
Theology in Life
I first noticed theology at work in my life, when I was a young child, and my mom discovered I needed glasses for extreme farsightedness. I hated the glasses, but when I complained, Mom told me that if I wanted to get rid of them, I should pray and ask Jesus to heal me. Every day, I prayed, and after a few months, my glasses started to bother me.
When mom took me back to the eye doctor, they discovered I needed a dramatically weaker prescription. But I still wanted the glassed gone, so I kept praying. A few weeks later, they bothered me again, and Mom said, “Just take them off. You‘re probably healed.” Thirteen years later, when I finally went to the eye doctor again, I discovered I did indeed have 20/20 vision!
You see, writer, my simple belief, sparked by my mother’s challenge, sowed the seeds of conviction in my heart that God did want people to be well. Though for many years I struggled with timidity in prayer for others and frustration at sickness, that conviction remained and grew and led to an ongoing ministry in healing prayer later in my life. And here’s the thing, writer…
Theology in Your Life
What we really think about God is often learned the middle of adversity as we choose to cling to Him and His promises in the face circumstances or as we choose instead to succumb to those circumstances. Because here’s the real deal…
Both our understanding and our misunderstanding of who God is will shape our voice. But here’s the good news! If we have misunderstood God, which happens to everyone at different points, He delights to reveal Himself to us. Let me prove it to you…
- You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. – Jeremiah 29:13
- And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. – John 17:3
- Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. – Philippians 3:8-12
You see, writer, we only know God as deeply as we’re willing to rely on Him and trust Him to be God even when life screams the opposite. Just like Brother Lawrence came to understand God’s love in the middle of war. Just like Job clung to His vision of God’s justice when everything and everyone was unjustly set against him. Just like I clung to the belief that God wanted His people well though I experienced many untimely family deaths later in life.
When we trust God to be who He said he is, we begin to make space in our lives for Him to do what He promised He would do. And when we make space for God in us, it can’t help but shape the way we live and move and have our being.
Where to Start with Theology
So, if you’re ready to consider how God might be leveraging your understanding of Him to reach others, here are a few questions to consider…
- What Battles Have I Faced? When you stop and consider what battles of faith you’ve fought and overcome, many times you will discover key ways God intends to speak in and through you to others.
- What Battles Am I Currently Facing? The battles you are in are ones He intends to use to continue shaping your voice and message in the future. If you are in a battle, what promises and words has God given you? I encourage you to meditate on these regularly to help you hold fast to your faith.
- What Unshakeable Truths Am I Willing to Stake My Life On? Pause and prayerfully reflect about these. These beliefs can often feel like second nature to us. They are the truths that we are surprised to find others disbelieve. These deep convictions form the core of who we are and dramatically shape our voice.
- Where Might My Understanding of God Be Wrong? Sometimes we discover we’ve held a belief about God that’s totally incorrect – and here’s the thing. These beliefs affect our voice, too. It’s important to recognize where God may be challenging our conception of Him and to lean in to understand who He really is, rather than who we think he is, which leads to…
- Commit to Deeper Understanding. The more we know and understand our heavenly Father, the more it sets us free and the more Who he is impacts and shapes our life and voice in a way no one else can. Because here’s the final thing…
If you’ll notice, neither Brother Lawrence nor Job nor I enjoyed perfect circumstances when we began trusting God. Brother Lawrence believed God was a God of profound love even as he engaged in terrible killing on the battlefield. Job believed in God’s justice even as he cried, in essence, out “foul play!” I believed in God’s healing power when my eyes were still bad and through years of timidity and untimely deaths.
You see, writer, it’s the truth that we refuse to let go of that becomes real in us and gets passed through us. It is as we are faithful to what we do know that God blesses us to understand more. And it is when we refuse to let go of what we know about God—even when it doesn’t seem to line up with life—that opens the doorway for God to work miracles not just in our lives but in the lives of others, too.
Just like Brother Lawrence’s resolve about God’s love allowed that supernatural love to flow through him and leave a legacy that’s impacted generations. Just like Job’s resolve to see God’s justice not only opened the door for God’s supernatural visit and restoration but created a witness to God’s sovereign faithfulness and justice that’s echoed through the ages. Just like my persistent belief in God’s will to heal grew beyond me to see other experience God’s healing power, too.
So, I encourage you today, writer, resolve to hold fast to what you know of God. And where you are resolved, don’t hesitate to let that testimony shine bright. As you do, the witness of your life and your words will become that beacon of light and hope for others helps others in their journey, too.
#theology #faith #NeverGiveUp #KnowHim #EveryWriterWriting
