Our Bible verse for today: “For his invisible attributes, that is, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, being understood through what he has made.” Romans 1:20 (CSB)
Our thought for today: “An attribute helps us to know God.”
In his great little book “The Knowledge of the Holy”, A.W. Tozer explains, “An attribute of God is whatever God has in any way revealed as being true of himself.” So an attribute of God is something that is true of God and which we are able to conceive of and understand. God’s attributes are ways in which He shows Himself to us so that we can begin to comprehend who He is and what He is like.
God has many attributes and He has chosen to reveal some of them to us, such as love, mercy, compassion, righteousness, justice, etc. Each attribute reveals to us something that is true of God and it therefore helps us to understand Him a little better. The attributes He has chosen to reveal to us are on display first and foremost in the person of Jesus Christ. Second, they are described in the Bible. And third, as Paul stated in Romans 1:20, many of God’s attributes (such as His majesty), are even clearly seen in the creation itself.
The way in which we can most benefit from God’s self-revelation of His attributes is to take them one at a time, study the attribute and mediate on it. We do this by choosing an attribute of God (perhaps mercy, as an example), find passages of Scripture which display or describe that attribute, consider the context in which the passage showcases that attribute for us, and then think prayerfully and meditatively about what it teaches us about God. This is what we will do in the days to come through these devotional messages.
God has created us with a deep, innate desire to know and experience Him. He then has revealed truth about Himself in multiple ways. We can come to know Him and experience Him to ever-increasing degrees, but the joy of that experience is reserved for those who want it and who will seek it. This requires time and effort from us. The great Christian poet Frederick Faber once described the meditative seeking of God in this way:
“Only to sit and think of God, Oh what a joy it is! To think the thought, to breathe the Name, Earth has no higher bliss.”
I encourage you to spend some extra time thinking about God today. Choose just one of His many attributes and prayerfully consider what it teaches you about God.
Oak Hill Baptist Church