Who He Is, Not Who I Think He Is

"In this way we're a lot like the people walking past the windows of the coffee shop. Instead of looking through the window of God's self-revelation and seeing him, we find it easier to admire our own reflection or to place on him the constraints of our own existence. We judge him by our standards of justice, fairness, power, and mercy. We even measure his greatness by our own ideals of greatness." Josh Harris, excerpt from his book Dug Down Deep (I think), posted on Boundless

This paragraph is very true. I've been aware of this concept after re-reading the Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis last year. In that book, Screwtape advises Wormwood to get his person to focus not on who God is, but who he thinks God is. His own image of God, which turns into a form of idolatry. It is so easy, with our earthly constraints, to place limits upon God or to think that He thinks and feels similar to how we do. I often want God to be like me, and that is a travesty. I am flawed, limited, wimpy. Instead, I want to focus on who God is. To know Him better. As often happens with prayer, I may get more than I bargained for, but that is probably a good thing.