The Personal God

From Gospel Translations

God is, but what is God like? The question is not merely academic, because if what we think about God is basically wrong, we may be worshipping a false God, an idol.  And what we worship shapes us. We tend to take on something of the character of what we worship - money, pleasure, success, God, or anything else. So if we will worship God, we must think of him as he is. Otherwise the false image we worship will distort our motives and twist our personalities.

So what is God like? What are his main qualities (which are sometimes called his attributes)? Many of God's characteristics are shared in some degree with human beings. This makes it possible for us to understand what he is like. But the qualities God shares with us are not exactly like ours, for our words are not adequate to express his perfection. God wills, and we will; God loves and we love: God hates, and we hate. But God's wilI, God's love, and God's hate are not exactly like ours. In each case, we must try to detect how God's qualities are like ours, and how they differ.

In addition, God has attributes quite unlike anything else in the universe. They are far harder for us to understand, even when they are described for us. But there are ways of picturing them and glimpsing them, and they are an essential part of what makes God who he is.

QUALITIES GOD SHARES WITH PEOPLE

God is personal. This means he is aware of his own existence, that he reasons, makes free decisions. He is an intelligent moral being, not merely an abstract idea, a 'thing' which somehow exercises fatalistic control over the universe, like a giant robot in a factory. He acts and speaks because he consciously chooses to act and speak, deciding what he will do and what he will say.

All moral virtues belong to God. Jesus has shown us that