The Story of God

It's hard for some to imagine reading the Bible and looking for God. After all, it's not like God is named in every passage the way that the human characters are. 

It feels a little bit like Elijah in 1 Kings 19. There was an earthquake, but God was not in the earthquake. There was a strong wind, but God was not in the wind. There was a fire, but God was not in the fire. And still, we read our Bible and when we're looking for God, most of us are looking for the wind, the earthquake, the fire. 

We aren't really looking for the still, small thing. 

Or more realistically, the still, small things.

What I mean is that if we are looking for God, one taste of Him seems to satisfy us. We figure out one thing that we think must be true of God in the story, and then that's what we take away from it. Like every story that God has given us is meant to show us only one thing about His character. 

So take, for example, the story of David and Goliath. If we read that looking for God, most of us come away thinking that God is the kind of God who uses a small thing to defeat a big thing. Who guides a rock right into the forehead of a giant. Who acts with such strength that the mighty fall before Him. 

And that is true. God is certainly that kind of God.

But if that's the only kind of God that we think the story is trying to tell us about, then we're missing out on a whole lot of other truths that are also just as real. 

Like...our God is a loving Father who cares about His children when they are engaged in the battle, the way that Jesse was worried about his sons on the front lines. 

Our God sends His Son with provisions, with a little bit of bread and drink, to fuel us and sustain us while we fight, the way that Jesse sent his son with provisions for his other children. 

How's that for just two? We could also talk about our God being the kind of God who hears the enemy taunting us and gives us a power to rise up in faith. We could talk about our God being the kind of God who throws off the weapons of this world because they aren't right for the battle and they make Him weaker. We could talk about our God being the kind of God who puts weapons in our hands that we know how to wield well and so makes a mockery of what the world thinks it offers.

Like I said, we could go on and on, but most of us don't. Most of us stop at the first thing that we think we understand about God, and we make that the thing when really, every story that God has given us reveals more about Him than we can fathom. We just have to keep looking. 

So read the Bible looking for God, but don't stop when you think you've found Him. Keep looking for Him and see what else there is to learn. It really will change the way you believe.