{"id":4472,"date":"2018-03-25T09:00:49","date_gmt":"2018-03-25T14:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.barbdahlgren.com\/?p=4472"},"modified":"2018-03-21T12:58:37","modified_gmt":"2018-03-21T17:58:37","slug":"choose-not-to-make-god-into-your-image","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/?p=4472","title":{"rendered":"Choose Not to Make God into Your Image"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yet Another Year of Choices<\/em><\/p>\n

By Barbara Dahlgren<\/em><\/p>\n

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Theologian A. W. Tozer said: \u201cMuch of our difficulty as seeking Christians stems from our unwillingness to take God as He is and adjust our lives accordingly. We insist upon trying to modify Him and to bring Him nearer to our own image.\u201d<\/p>\n

Academically we want to be made into God\u2019s image (Genesis 1:26); emotionally we want to make God over into our image, so we tend to give Him a spiritual \u201cface lift\u201d \u2013 a nip here and a tuck there, so He can be a reflection of us instead of us reflecting Him.<\/p>\n

Subconsciously, we think God tends to reflect our own personalities which can influence the choices we make. Introverts might think God is distant and not all that interested in our day-to-day lives, so they withdraw from interaction with others. Extroverts might think God is the life of the party, so they live it up. Happy people might think God wants to give everyone a big hug, so they smile, smile, smile. Angry people might think God wants to annihilate everyone, so they stay grumpy. Activists might think God is interested in social change, so they run for office. Pacifists might think God will just let everything take its course, so they remain uninvolved.<\/p>\n

To carry it a step further, many of us think God likes what we like and hates what we hate. If we are vegetarians, God visits the salad bar. If we sing country music, God wears a Stetson and strums a guitar. If we are rich, God lives in a mansion. If we are poor, God lives in a shack.<\/p>\n

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We even think God judges a matter the way we would judge. We think His views are our views. Of course this makes life so much easier because the phrase \u201cwhat would Jesus do\u201d (WWJD) quickly morphs into \u201cwhat I want to do.\u201d Actually, there\u2019s nothing wrong with having preferences or opinions as long as we don\u2019t think they are the standard for righteousness.<\/p>\n

It may be hard to acknowledge that what we feel is not as important as what God feels. What we think is not as important as what God thinks. Our thoughts are not God\u2019s thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8) Our views are not necessarily God\u2019s views, and almost assuredly our preferences are not the same as His. This may come as a shock, but God does not like what we like just because we like it. God does not hate what we hate just because we hate it. God does not react how we react just so we can justify what we do. If He did, we would not need to seek the mind of Christ (Philippians 2:5) and be transformed (Romans 12:2). Therefore, we should strive to align our thinking with God\u2019s, not His to ours.<\/p>\n

Consider this\u2026 God is God and we are not. We should be trying to become more like God instead of imagining Him more like us.<\/p>\n

One final thought\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

We are not God even though we might think and act like we are!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yet Another Year of Choices By Barbara Dahlgren Theologian A. W. Tozer said: \u201cMuch of our difficulty as seeking Christians stems from our unwillingness to take God as He is and adjust our lives accordingly. We insist upon trying to … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4472"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4472"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4472\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}