Seeing A Small Picture Of God's Power

Dear GOD,
I bet it is very hard for You to love all of everybody in the whole world. There are only four people in our family and I can never do it.
—Nan (age 7)
There are two sides to God's coin. On one side is the word "Father." We can relate to the father thing because of our earthly fathers. But the other side of the coin says "Almighty." There are definitely people on earth who have a lot of might, but none of them have all might. We have no comparisons when we talk about God being "Almighty," so we humans have concocted a variety of different words and metaphors to try to describe this aspect of God:

• sovereign (sŏv'ər-ĭn) n.  One that exercises supreme, permanent authority, especially in a nation or other governmental unit, as a king, queen, or other noble person who serves as chief of state; a ruler or monarch.
• transcendent (trān-sěn'dənt) adj. 1. Surpassing others; preeminent or supreme. 2. Lying beyond the ordinary range of perception. 3. Being beyond the limits of experience and hence unknowable. 4. Being above and independent of the material universe.

God's Patience Towards You

"Lord, give me patience, and give it to me NOW!" —Unknown
I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that people often build their view of God based on what their earthly fathers are like. Whereas many of us have great, loving dads, some people have a father figure who is constantly mad at his family. Perhaps, he vents stress from other parts of his life onto the nearest and least resistant source. Or maybe he holds the people nearest to him to ridiculously high standards and reacts irrationally when they aren't met. Regardless of the source, angry dads can lead people to think that God the Father is like their father, angry at everybody and everything. That's not only wrong, but contradictory to what the Bible tells us! God revealed Himself to Moses as the Father who is "...slow to anger..." (Exodus 34:6). David sang of the Father with words like these: