How do you see God?

By Sidharth Mohandas

I have read the book of Job a number of times and have always wondered why God allowed Satan to bring so much suffering on blameless Job. The Lord brought the following verse to my attention:

The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away [Job 1:21]

Though this verse has been used a lot by Christians when tragic strikes, I believe that it is a wrong understanding of God. We, of course, do know that Job did not have the revelation that we have today, and so with the revelation knowledge he had of God in his day, he was considered blameless by God.

However, from the above verse we realize that Job did know God as a Giver, but he also pictured God as one who wanted to take away the blessings he had. I believe God allowed Job to go through such a trial because He wanted Job to have a new revelation of Him. And that revelation I believe was that God is a Giver, and not a Stealer.

Once Job had this revelatory knowledge of God, he says to God: “My ears had heard of You, but now my eyes have seen You” [Job 42:5] Job now saw God’s true nature as one who wanted to give and bless. And when Job’s understanding about God changed, we see God releasing His blessings on him twice as much as before [Job 42:10b].

What is your understanding of God? Do you see Him as one who sends sickness and disease on you or do you see Him as a Healer? Do you see Him as a Father or do you see Him as a Dictator? Do you see Him enjoyable or do you see Him boring?

2 Peter 1:2 says “Grace and peace be yours in abundance THROUGH THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD AND OF JESUS OUR LORD.”. The door to an abundance of God’s grace and peace is knowledge of Him. This is one reason I strive to have the right understanding of Scriptures, putting aside human tradition and preconceived notions. A common thing I see among believers is that they allow their experiences to change God’s Word, instead of letting the Word of God affect their experiences. For example, if someone dies of cancer, and if they didn’t get healed of it, people establish that God sometimes brings sickness and disease on people. However, Scripture calls God the one who heals all diseases, and it also testifies to the fact that Jesus healed ALL those who came to Him in faith. The truth is, if you really want to know the truth, you can. There are no relative truths in the Bible, they are all absolute. God wants us to know Him clearly. And to unravel these mysteries about Him, He has given us His Spirit.

We need to ask ourselves today, are we willing to pay the price to get the truth and see it in action? I encourage you to be open to God today and accept what He says about Himself, don’t be deceived by some experience where God supposedly failed. Let God be true, and every man a liar. [Romans 3:4]

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