WONDER - Exploring the Mysteries of Encountering GodSample

TRANSCENDENCE 

Prolific author and church statesman Jack Hayford once said, “The real world is not only made by God but it testifies of Him. We are never so much in the ‘real world’ as when ascribing to God the glory or ‘weight of substantial worthiness’ due Him.” 

God reveals aspects of His worthiness in creation around us. When you study His character, you see what He is like, which invokes worship. When you realize His unique and perfect attributes, you are inspired to worship at a higher level. In those moments you transcend the mundane and familiar.

True worship always flows out of a revelation of God’s perfect character. Although to fully understand God is far beyond human comprehension, the Bible does offer several revealing glimpses into His multifaceted nature. 

God is eternal. From vanishing point to vanishing point, Yahweh is God. God lives in the everlasting now. He has no past and no future. God dwells in eternity and appears at the beginning and end simultaneously—times which to Him are the same. If we talk about Him in terms of time, we make a serious error. 

God is infinite. When we say God is infinite, we mean that He is limitless, and it is impossible for our limited minds to comprehend the unlimited One. God is so transcendent that He cannot be adequately perceived. No language, book, painting, or digital imagery can express Him. God is above all, outside of all, and beyond all that exists. There are no measurements or degrees with Him. God has no intervals, sizes, weights, or distances. He is absolutely boundless, unlimited, indefinable, and uncontainable.

God is sovereign. He is free to do whatever He pleases at any time and in any place in order to carry out His infinitely wise purposes with unlimited power. He has sovereign control over the affairs of nature, men, and history. In His sovereignty, God has allowed evil to exist as a renegade fugitive in restricted areas of His creation, in a limited and temporary capacity. God has all control. 

When you contemplate the transcendence of God’s nature, your natural and spiritual response is to worship Him. Perhaps you sense that desire to adore Him right now, just from reading about what God is like. Tears have flowed down my checks when I write of the pristine perfections of our beloved Heavenly Father. It is in those moments that our theology turns to doxology.

How does God’s transcendence impact you? How would you adjust your life to focus more on the wonder of God?

Pray with me: Heavenly Father, show me more of Yourself and how perfect You are in all Your ways. Increase my knowledge and wonder of You. In Jesus’s name, Amen