Sometimes I just like to sit at my desk during the early morning hours, close my eyes, and dwell on the magnitude of God in order to strengthen my faith in the Lord and recharge my spiritual batteries. We’ll only be able to know and understand a small part of who God is. Our minds couldn’t begin to cope with the whole magnitude of God so the Lord protects us by limiting our knowledge of him. When we do take the time to stop and actually think about God (meditate) in terms of what we do know about the Lord it will humble us. It has to be that way when we compare ourselves to Almighty God. How could it be any other way if we’re totally honest with ourselves? Thinking about God often will also help us to maintain our “fear” of the Lord. Biblically speaking, fearing God means to look upon him with awe, deep respect and reverence.
James 4:10 – Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.
1 Peter 5:6-7 – Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that He may lift you up in due time, casting all your cares upon Him, for He cares for you.
Micah 6:8 – He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?
Romans 1:20 – For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse.
Because of the sin nature we all inherited from Adam’s fall from grace in the Garden of Eden we’re all born in a fallen state and we’re all on a trajectory straight to hell. A gracious and merciful God has provided us a way out of this impending eternal death through the blood of Jesus Christ, Son of the living God. To receive our salvation we must first come before the throne of grace in prayer and accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. When praying to Almighty God it’s important we self-monitor ourselves closely to ensure our humility before God and to make sure our fear of God is strong. This is true when we come before the throne of grace in prayer for any reason. There’s no better way for us to remain humble before God while at the same time stoking our fear of the Lord than to dwell often on the magnificent attributes of God. As we read our Bibles daily and meditate about God we will have accomplished both of these goals. It says we will in God’s Word.
Deuteronomy 17:19 – And it (God’s law/the Bible) shall be with him (the believer), and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God and be careful to observe all the words of this law and these statutes.
Proverbs 1:7 – The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.
Ecclesiastes 12:13 – Fear God, and keep His commandments; for this is the whole duty of man.
Luke 18:14 – (Jesus speaking) – For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.
If you expect God to answer your prayers you cannot appear before the throne of grace in prayer without having both humility and fear. God hates arrogant men and those full of pride and any such person who offers a prayer to God; those prayers are an abomination to the Lord. They would be better off not offering any prayers to God. The sacrificial death of Jesus on the cross purchased the right for all believers to have 24/7 access to God the Father through prayer. What a wonderful privilege we have been given! Access to God is still conditional on us approaching God in the right way; which is humbly and in fear. God is the sovereign King of the universe and there’s a heavenly protocol to follow when we speak to God in prayer by first acknowledging who God is and then offering praise, honor and worship with our lips. We can do that by using one or more of God’s many attributes or names when praying to God. Nonbelievers who pray to God in times of great stress may or may not be heard by the Lord. They have no guarantee of being heard like believers do.
Proverbs 28:9 – One who turns away his ear from hearing the law (the Bible), even his prayer is an abomination.
Galatians 5:22-23 – But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.
Matthew 7:17-18 – (Jesus speaking) – Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.
Hebrews 13:15 – Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.
God has many attributes, the vast majority of which we’ll never know or fully understand this side of heaven. All we can know about the attributes of God is what he reveals to us in his word. I keep my personal list of the attributes of God on a 4″ X 6″ index card on my desk so I can review them often. My list only has 38 entries so far but I know God’s word contains many more attributes of God than those on my list. When you meditate on God pick out one attribute that pertains to the Lord and ask yourself how God shows that attribute in the Bible and how it pertains to your life. Let me repeat myself (repetition is good). As we come before the Lord in prayer we must always be humble because a prideful person is an abomination to God and so are his prayers. We must also “fear” God, which means we are to look upon the Lord with awe, deep respect and reverence. Nothing will keep you humble and fearful before the Lord in prayer quite like meditating on the attributes and names of Almighty God, King of the universe. My list is the following:
ATTRIBUTES OF GOD:
1. Self-existent – God exists and is not dependent on anyone or anything.
2. Self-sufficient – God has no need not provided by himself.
3. Eternal – God is free from the constraints of time. God has always existed.
4. Infinite – God has no limitations and is bounded only by his nature and will.
5. Omnipresent – God’s essence equally fills all the universe.
6. Omniscient – God knows all things past, present, future, as well as all possibilities.
7. Omnipotent – God can do anything not against his nature.
8. Immutable – God’s divine character remains constant. God does not change.
9. Sovereign – God is the King and absolute ruler of the universe.
10. Incomprehensible – No one can truly know God.
11. Inscrutable – God is mysterious and inexplicable.
12. Holy – God is absolute purity and goodness. God is spiritually and morally perfect.
13. Righteous – God has moral equity. God is just and fair to everyone in all his actions.
14. True – God is factual about all things. God cannot lie.
15. Faithful – God keeps his covenants (promises). What God says will come true.
16. Light – God is the source of all illumination in our universe and in heaven.
17. Good – God is kind, gentle, sympathetic and friendly.
18. Merciful – God wants to forgive our sins and save us from an eternity in hell.
19. Gracious – God wants to give us his unmerited favor.
20. Love – God seeks our highest good and shows an unselfish concern for us.
21. Wise – God has perfect knowledge and wisdom which he uses to our best end.
One of the spiritual truths of the Bible is a tree will only produce fruit after its own kind. This truth of God pertains to angels, men, demons and God himself. Only man has the free will to choose what our kind will be, whether good or bad (sinful/evil). The purpose of our life on this planet is to make the free will choice between God and Satan. We have a seventy year life span, if we’re lucky, to decide whether we’ll produce good fruit or bad fruit. We are what we consistently say and what we continually do. The attributes of God are a reflection of what God does and what God says. If we want to know who God is then we need to take a look at his attributes, both individually and collectively, and then we’ll have a pretty clear picture of the mind and heart of God. Scripture tells us the fruit of God’s Spirit includes goodness, faithfulness and love, which we see in the list above. Other fruits or attributes of God listed in Scripture include the following:
22. Gentleness – God deals with man with more gentleness than we deserve.
23. Kindness – God deals with man kindly because he knows our limitations and frailty.
24. Longsuffering – God has patience in the face of repeated provocations on our part.
25. Self-control – Man continually provokes God to anger yet God has not destroyed us.
26. Peace – We have peace with God and he gives us his peace; the only true peace.
27. Joy – True joy in our life is like true peace, both can only come from the Lord.
As we go through the stories in the Bible we learn about our great God’s awesome power and fearsome wrath. An angry God scares the heck out of us with good reason. Only God can send someone to hell because he is the righteous judge of our earthly conduct. Luckily for us God is good, fair and just. The Bible gives us a peek into the heart of God and we get to see God’s character on display, which should give us all comfort knowing that we have such a good and great God. As believers we’re so lucky to be chosen as children of God; blessed more than we’ll ever know. When I look at the additional attributes of God listed below it makes me love the Lord even more; if that’s possible:
28. Just – God is fair to everyone and each person gets exactly what he deserves.
29. Jealous – God requires that we believe in him and worship no other gods but him.
30. Generous – God is generous to a fault and will give more than we could ever hope for.
31. Caring – God cares deeply about each one of us and only wants what’s best for us.
32. Tender-hearted – God is a soft touch for those who love him and he wants to give to us.
33. Protective – God assigns guardian angels to protect all believers from harm.
34. Mournful – God made us all and he mourns the loss of every spirit that goes to hell.
35. Grievous – When we sin against God it causes great sorrow to our maker.
36. Hopeful – God is always hopeful that we’ll find salvation and return home to him.
37. Great – Scripture says God is great; encompassing a multitude of godly attributes.
38. Righteous – God is morally good and virtuous. God always does the right thing.
Praying to God is something we all have to learn to do in such a way that is both respectful to God yet personal to each of us. God doesn’t want canned prayers. God wants you to speak to him from your heart; whatever is on your mind. Nothing is too trivial for God to hear about if it’s important to you. I learned a long time ago you can’t go wrong by praying Scripture back to God and aligning our wishes with God’s promises. The Bible says we can have what we ask for so give some thought to what comes out of your mouth. When I look at the attributes of God they tend to fall into one of two categories. Eighteen attributes of God fall into a category I call “great” which tends to show God’s magnitude and power and which elicits deep respect and awe on our part. God has the attribute of omnipotence, for example, which is one of the attributes that make God great. The Bible says God is great, which is a generic attribute on my list. When I pray and I say God is great I’m agreeing with God’s word but I’m also referring to the other seventeen great attributes of God on my list.
Deuteronomy 32:3-4 – For I proclaim the name of the Lord: Ascribe greatness to our God. He is the Rock, His work is perfect; for all His ways are justice, a God of truth and without injustice; righteous and upright is He.
Psalm 106:1 – Praise the Lord! Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever.
John 9:31 – Now we know that God does not hear sinners; but if anyone is a worshipper of God and does His will, He hears him.
James 5:16 – The effective fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.
The remaining twenty attributes of God on my list I call “good” which tends to show us the heart and character side of God. Holiness is an example of a “good” attribute of God. Many times in the Bible God is called good, which is a generic attribute. All of the attributes on my “good” list engender deep respect just like the great attributes I’ve already mentioned but they also cause us to love and admire God. We refer to this as reverence. The Bible spends much more time focusing on God’s good attributes than on his great attributes because they are more important to us. See if you can divide up the 38 attributes of God I have listed above into your own groups of good and great attributes. Pick out one of the attributes of God that is important to you and meditate on it. You’ll be amazed how much it strengthens your faith in God. When I pray to God I often tell him that, “God is good, God is great.” I may praise God for a more specific attribute from time to time but good and great are also attributes of God on my list and by mentioning these two specific attributes of God I’m also including, by reference, all the other attributes of God. The Bible often uses the word prayer and supplication interchangeably. The definition of supplication is, “to humbly ask for something.” That tells us all prayers to God should be made humbly.
Philippians 4:6 – Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.
1 Timothy 2:8 – I desire therefore that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting.
James 4:2 – Yet you do not have because you do not ask.
Colossians 4:2 – Continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving.
Psalm 6:9 – The Lord has heard my supplication; the Lord will receive my prayer.
We praise God by acknowledging his attributes in prayer. We worship our God when we mention the goodness and greatness of God with our lips in prayer. We honor and glorify God when we call him by his name in prayer. The Lord is his name. Jehovah is his name. God has many names and attributes and we can personalize our prayers by choosing one or more of them when we address God. Prayers usually have a beginning, middle and end. At the beginning of your prayer offer praise and worship to God. The middle part of your prayer is where you say what you came before God to ask for or say. The end of your prayer is where you thank God for not only hearing your prayer, but also for answering your prayer, even if it hasn’t happened yet. You close your prayer with, “in Jesus’ name I pray, amen.”
Ephesians 4:30 – And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
The instant we were saved God forgave all our past sins and our eternal destiny was irrevocably changed from hell to heaven. That doesn’t mean we can no longer sin or we won’t continue to sin, because we still have to live on this sin-filled earth which is under the sway of the wicked one. We don’t have a blank check from God so we can continue to sin without consequence. After our salvation we will all still sin before God and we all still need to have our sins forgiven, preferably on a daily basis. This is why we need to pray to God daily for forgiveness of our sins. The sins of believers won’t keep us out of heaven but unforgiven sin grieves the Holy Spirit of God and will affect our rewards in heaven. Those believers who continue to sin, and sin grievously, run the risk of God taking them home early. God promises to forgive our sins if we ask him so why not give our sins to God in prayer? Everyone’s prayers are different, personal and just as effective as anyone else’s prayers, if they are heartfelt. The most important thing about prayer is to just pray what you feel, any way you can, and as often as you can. God judges the heart and understands.
1 Peter 1:3-5 – Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
Every single person in heaven wishes they had prayed more while they were still on earth. We all need to greatly increase our prayer time. Follow the general format of the Lord’s prayer provided by Jesus in Matthew 6:9-13. The Holy Spirit of God that dwells within all believers is tasked with helping us with our prayers to God the Father. Prayers to God are not designed to be one and done. You don’t pray for something one time and quit. Keep praying until you get what you ask for. God is not a slot machine that pays out every time you want something and just when you want it. Prayer doesn’t work that way. God’s timetable for answering prayers is different from ours so be patient. God will not give you something you’re not ready to receive yet or if your request is not in your best interest, just because you asked for it. God will protect you from yourself. God knows perfectly well what you need so trust in God’s judgment and praise him continually for his blessings in your life.
Mark 11:24 – (Jesus speaking) – Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask for when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.
Hebrews 4:16 – Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
1 Thessalonians 5:24 – He who calls you is faithful, who will also do it.
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 – Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
Holiness is the most prominent attribute of God and the holiness of God is mentioned hundreds of time in the Bible. God is Spirit and he is holy, hence God is also known as the “Holy Spirit.” God commands us to be holy because he is holy. The dictionary defines holy as, “morally and spiritually excellent.” That definition may work for us but when using holy in reference to God we mean, “morally and spiritually perfect.” I usually start off my prayers to the Lord by addressing him as, “Holy God” , because holiness is God’s number one attribute and I want to acknowledge it. I also like to talk to God using a personal title. I often refer to God as, “Lord of heaven and earth.” Why? Because I like it and it’s factual. Jesus also referred to God the Father by that title and if it’s good enough for Jesus it’s good enough for me. Jesus is the firstborn Son of God and as believers we’re also equally the children of God and we may freely use the above title when we talk to him. We are also free to talk to God using any title, name or attribute of God we choose as long as it’s respectful and biblical. Let the Holy Spirit be your guide when talking with God in prayer. He will if you ask him. One of the duties of the Holy Spirit is to help us with our prayers to God so use him whenever you can.
1 John 3:1 – Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!
Romans 8:14 – For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.
Mark 16:15 – (Jesus speaking) – Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
Isaiah 45:22 – Look to Me, and be saved, all you ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other.
My favorite attribute of God is “longsuffering.” Patience is one thing but longsuffering is harder. Longsuffering is patience on steroids. Longsuffering is being patient in the face of repeated and continual provocation over a long period of time. Longsuffering is like me poking God in the eye with a sharp stick over and over, because of my sins, for over fifty years yet God remains calm, never gets angry with me or abandons me. That is one truly amazing God! God planned for my life and knew everything about me before he laid the foundation of the world. God waited on me patiently for over 6000 years so he could give me my eternal spirit at conception in my mother’s womb. God waited patiently for me to be born, grow up to the age of decision, and then find him and accept the gift of salvation by accepting Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, at the age of twelve. I was then a backslider for over forty years yet God did not abandon me. God waited patiently for me to return to him in fellowship. God is currently waiting for me to complete the works he has planned for me to do from the foundation of the world.
Ephesians 1:4 – Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.
Matthew 25:34 – (Jesus speaking) – Then the King will say to those on His right hand, come you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
Christian blogging is what I call “passive witnessing” for Christ and I’m sure this work was also part of God’s plan for me. Finally, God is waiting patiently for my death so that he can take me home to live with him forever in heaven. I fondly refer to the Lord my God as the, “One who waits,” for me. God has been waiting a very long time for me to join him so I’m not afraid of dying. I am fearful that I haven’t witnessed for Christ well enough or long enough. That’s why the goal for the rest of my life is to save, “one more for Jesus.” I also feel my good works for the kingdom of God are inadequate based on the blessings I have received from God. I think most Christians feel this way because a seventy year life span, if we’re lucky, simply isn’t long enough to accomplish what we need to do for God. After our salvation, God leaves us on this earth to witness for Christ and to do good works. King Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, figured out rightly in the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes that the only thing of importance in our lives is a right relationship with God. Everything else is meaningless. We are simply to do the best we can with who we are and what we have and then throw ourselves upon the mercy of a good, just and loving God. God is always faithful and we know he dotes on us. God will not fail those who love him.
1 Timothy 6:17-19 – Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy. Let them do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share, storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.
The riches stored up for me in heaven will be paltry compared to what I could have had and should have had. I think everyone who goes to heaven feels the same way. I know Jesus loves me and he’s waiting for me on the other side of the spiritual veil. I have been waiting to see Jesus for a long time too. It’ll be a joyous reunion in heaven when I finally get to see Jesus face to face. If you don’t know Jesus Christ yet then seek out the truth of God while you still can. My earliest blogs outlined all the proofs of God you will ever need to make an informed decision about the truth of God. The Holy Spirit will also convict you of your sins if you read God’s Word every day, especially if you read the gospels of Christ contained in the New Testament books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. The Lord does not wait for me only. The Lord also waits for you, but he won’t wait forever for you to decide whether you will serve God or Satan. Time is short. Please don’t delay in making the right decision. The evidence for God is overwhelming if you take the time to look at it. Your eternal soul hangs in the balance. What say you?
Isaiah 30:18 – Therefore the Lord will wait, that He may be gracious to you; and therefore He will be exalted, that He may have mercy on you. For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are those who wait for Him.
Jeremiah 29:11 – For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not evil, to give you a future and a hope.
Psalm 116:15 – Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.