I Do Not Know God

If we insist upon trying to imagine Him, we end with an idol, made not with hands but with thoughts; and an idol of the mind is so offensive to God as an idol of the hand.  Knowledge of the Holy, Tozer, pg.8

I have followed Jesus for over 25 years now and I have taken for granted that I know God. But when I read this I am shocked back to the truth that I can not know God completely because he is far, above and beyond like anything on this earth. Anything I use as a reference will be a poor likeness of God.

I do not know God... but I want to.

In fact, I yearn to and it seems that there is a craving in each person to do so as well. They may not label is as wanting to "know God", but it may come out in other forms like craving purpose, meaning and intimacy. "The yearning to know What cannot be known, to comprehend the Incomprehensible, to touch and taste the Unapproachable, arises from the image of God in the nature of man... the soul senses its origin and longs to return to its Source." Tozer, 9.

So how can one know? Is it to read the Bible? Obey it? On its own - no.  We need Jesus. Without Jesus, there is nothing to bridge the gap that separates us from God in the first place - the reason why he is unapproachable in the first place.

But with Jesus we have access to know God. Then we can go on and do what Tozer suggests and instead of asking, "What is God like?" we should be asking "What has God disclosed about Himself that He has declared true?" Specifically, we know him by his attributes.

My plan is:

• Study God's attributes (i.e. read the rest of Tozer's book!)
• Do a word study on God's attributes as I learn about them
• Blog about each attribute
• Identify things I take God for granted for and erroneously applied to Him 

What are some suggestions that have worked to help you know God more by focusing on his attributes?

Photo by kloan