What I know about God

(Started on Mar 28, 2011)
What I know about Him:

His nature is infinitely loving and patient.  He will keep trying to get through to us for as long as it takes (decades in my case), and gather us to Him with joy when we finally turn to Him no matter how stubbornly we resisted Him.  No one is so far gone that He might not still focus His effort on that person…  or ask US to do so on his behalf (aka bringing back the prodigals, which is the greatest gift we can give Him).

He will go to amazing lengths to give His blessings.  He will give us many things that we want, but NOT ALL;  He is too wise to corrupt us by letting us become like spoiled children.  He will virtually always give us what we need, although not always what we THINK we need, or in the way or form that we might have expected, or in the timeframe that we were looking for.  His way will always be the best way, even if we don’t see that at first.

He wants us to have faith in Him, and will reward that faith enormously.  Faith, and love, are all He asks for in return for His love and blessings.  All He wants is for us to learn to have faith, and give it to Him with all our hearts… and to be good people and do good deeds, too, of course!

He is able to speak to us in words, directly, and will sometimes do so, but most of His messages will take other forms;  often ideas will just pop into our heads out of left field at the exact time that we need them.  He will also send us signs of many types showing what He wants us to do, or what is going to happen;  these can be so dramatic as to appear surreal.  The Bible and the random Bible verse generators can be particularly good sources of messages.

He can control us physically, and at times does so, in a gentle and careful way that causes no physical discomfort or emotional distress, but mostly seems to allow us free will.  (Be aware that the Bible does NOT promise us free will as most people believe, so it’s not guaranteed.)

He can fill us with His presence, to a degree that is overwhelming but rarely frightening.

He, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are One; you can address your prayers to Whoever you want, and He will understand and respond, but in general, if you want to be filled with healing, address the Holy Spirit, and if you have demonic presences to combat, focus your prayers on Jesus.

No religion has everything totally right.  However, He has made it clear whose description of Him is the closest to right, by steering me to his sermons over and over:

http://tinyurl.com/2wmsgb

He wants to be asked when you want something, not to have to read your mind and give it to you without your having made any effort to connect with Him.  He wants to love us, not be our servant;  there needs to be a relationship with Him if you want to reap the full benefits of His love.

He wants to be thanked for His blessings, to be shown gratitude rather than taken for granted.  JO makes the point that if you don’t credit and thank Him for His blessings, He will stop giving to you until you learn to be grateful.  He also wants to be praised, not from any ego issues but because praise is another way to show our love and gratitude.

He provides strength, courage, support, and, most importantly to a high-strung person like me, calm, without being asked most of the time, but even more so when we DO ask.  He clearly values the connection, the interaction, when we DO ask, and this in itself is a reason to do so.

He wants us to care for those who are ill or dying, with love in our hearts, and will give us the strength to do so such that we don’t need to eat or sleep, if that’s what’s needed.

(As I was writing the above, I was startled to see that an earthworm had crawled up beside me…  and I’m NOT outside, nor is it raining.  I took a break to moisten him and then find him a nice big pot to live in;  I watched with a flashlight to be sure he was crawling under the soil (which I wetted down for him) rather than trying to make another run for it before coming back to the computer.  It feels like…  approval. 3-28-11)

(5-19-11)

A list of the things God wants from us:

I often wonder what there is about me that has made me the recipient of such an overwhelming abundance of His gifts, when plenty of fabulous people who have known Him all their lives don’t have this sort of bond with Him.  My best guess is that some or all of the ways that I’m very unusual are keys to His approval, so to cover all the bases, here are the qualities we should cultivate:

1)  Be able to completely give up control and subsume your will to His.  He does NOT use this to make you into a puppet, but He does seem to reward and encourage it; I know someone who hasn’t been able to experience being filled with Him because, in her own words, she can’t let go of enough control to do so.  I’m guessing that you can’t fully bond with Him without this one.

2)  FAITH.  He clearly doesn’t demand full faith the moment you accept Him into your heart, but just as clearly He wants us to really work at having faith with the goal of being able to have total faith all the time.  (It took some time, but with God’s help, eventually I got it.)  Your faith shouldn’t waver even when something huge doesn’t work out the way you wanted it to.  I had faith that God would give my mother at least a few more years, but she died…  and at no point did my faith waver, at no point did I doubt or question Him, and this was a great victory.

3)  Pay attention to the little voice in your head, the sudden urges to action, the signs, and any other ways He might use to direct your actions, and go where they take you; DO NOT ignore or discount them, as they come from the Holy Spirit.

4)  Virtue.  Carefully analyze the available options and choose the one that is most right, not the quickest, not the easiest, not the most fun, and not the most conventional;  do the hard thinking and make the hard choices, and do it every time no matter how much thought and energy you have to devote to it.

(While I was taking a break from re-reading the above, I came across the Serenity Prayer for the first time in many years, on a forum with no connection to religion:

Grant me the serenity
To accept the things I cannot change;
Courage to change the things I can;
And wisdom to know the difference.

Again, it feels like approval.  5-19-11)

5) “God wants everyone to be / Full of love and charity.”  These lines were from the song from an ad from…  3-4 decades ago?  The lines keep coming back to me, and I had that suspicious choking up when I said them out loud, so…  these “preferences” seem totally obvious, but you can’t take anything for granted, and it bears saying since so many people can’t be bothered.

6)  Have the right priorities:  God should always be first in your mind and heart, both directly, and indirectly in terms of determining and obeying His will and being the sort of person He wants you to be.  And God gave me a big surge of His presence when I said “People are more important than $,” so, although He wants to help us be successful, we need to focus on what a blessing the people He brings into our lives are more than on $.

7)  (9-22-12) Help those who have lost their way find Him, or find their way back to Him.  At the very least, we should go through life with a peace and joy that others will want a piece of.  When a situation arises where you can put across some of His message in a way that whoever’s listening will feel comfortable in accepting, go for it;  the reverse is that you DON’T try to cram it down people’s throats, as that is always counterproductive.  If you feel a calling to preach, follow it.  If you see the chance to bring back a prodigal, approach it with love and care, and God will help you find the way to guide them to Him.