GodView

What comes to mind when you think about God? Who do you believe God is? How do you believe God interacts with you personally and with your world? These are some of the questions the junior high is going to be addressing over the next couple meetings. You see, every one of us has a Godview whether we think about it or not. For many of us, it’s just a vague impression formed when we were younger. For some, it’s an image of Someone against whom we have a strong resistance. For others, God is personal and mysterious, offering an adventure to anyone ready to pursue a relationship with Him. While we can never really know everything about God – because He’s that big and that mysterious- the things we can learn about Him shape the way we respond to whatever life brings. That’s why author A.W. Tozer said, “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.”

No matter who we are, we all have a Godview. And the way we think about God affects how we interact with our world. Many people struggle because they have a negative or distorted view of God. Peter struggled at times because his view was distorted. He rebukes Jesus because he doesn’t believe that God would be tortured and die (Matthew 16). Later Peter steps up and comes to Jesus’ defense. In the moments as Jesus was being arrested in the garden of Gethsemane, Peter draws his sword and struck the high priest’s servant, cutting off his right ear. Peter thought he was doing the right thing, defending Jesus, fighting for him. As the night goes on we see Peter deny three times being one of the disciples. Here is a guy who just a few hours earlier was cutting off a guy’s ear to fight on Jesus’ behalf. Here is a guy who stood up when everyone else was silent and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” On some level Peter had always been one of Jesus’ closest followers, but here he is pretending he doesn’t even know Jesus. Was Peter right? Did he know Jesus, really? Can you know someone but not really know that person? That’s where Peter was. He knew Jesus, but there was so much about Jesus Peter thought he knew and really didn’t. The Jesus who was now arrested wasn’t the Jesus he thought he knew. He never expected Jesus to submit to beatings. He never expected Jesus to allow Himself to be so degraded. He never expected to watch Jesus die on a cross!

Do you really know God? Are you still relating to Jesus in the same way that you did when you were four. When you hold up your picture of God, has it changed at all? Every year you grow you, every year you learn more about God you will find your picture of God getting bigger.