As I blogged a bit ago about what I was reading, in our church we have been covering The Knowledge of the Holy: The Attributes of God: Their Meaning in the Christian Life, by A.W. Tozer. He's an author that until recently I didn't personally ever read. I thought I might have a copy of his book on one of my bookshelves, but I didn't. I did have J.I. Packer's Knowing God, but I hadn't read that either. I was thinking when I couldn't find Tozer's book that since I don't know the difference I could have just read that and I might have been just as happy. I want to read it yet, but I'm happy for now with the one we're on. Perhaps they're similar. I was sitting and reading Tozer's book last night, and I was thinking, "I bet my pulse is lower, I bet my blood pressure is lower...it's almost like lying in a hammock, the comfort that comes from this book." The verse that came to mind was, "Be still and know that I am God." (Ps. 46:10) I haven't read it through, or read the names of the remaining chapters. Maybe it gets less comfortable as it goes along...
The chapters, now that I look at the Table of Contents, are first, "Why We Must Think Rightly About God," "God Incomprehensible," "A Divine Attribute: Something True About God," "The Holy Trinity," "The Self-Existence of God"...the list goes on. Perhaps my blood pressure will rise again while reading "The Justice of God," or "The Sovereignty of God." All the rest would seem so far to be all the more (do I dare say this of God Himself?) endearing, comforting traits. How incredible it is, that we, having had no say in who should be the great God in charge of the universe, the Creator of everything and the Sustainer of our souls, should, just by the way things are, be given such a perfect, holy, gracious, merciful, wise, infinite God.
Why is it that God is the superlative of all that is good? Why did we not end up with the opposite? I suppose if God had been the opposite, we never would have existed in the first place--or if we had, we would have been destroyed. I can't really even begin to fathom it, and I hope it is because God's goodness has so been ingrained into my thinking about Him that it's hard to imagine Him without it. It should have been! It is hard to imagine any being in charge of the universe that would have designed us without love, without kindness and grace. We couldn't have lived. Life if it could exist would have been too overwhelming, too filled with intense suffering and pain to continue for long. Even for those who in this life do deal with suffering and pain, it isn't meted out by God, but by humanity, by Satan, by the sin of this world. We have a God of the universe to whom we can give all those things, who can redeem us out of them, who will make sure justice is served. All we need to do is turn to Him through His Son in faith. He is our Fortress, our Shield, our Defender, our Provider, our Savior. Therefore the calming influence of Tozer's book; I guess it illustrates that if you want peace, ponder the Prince of Peace. You could pretty much rephrase the verse, "Know I am God, and be still." Hallelujah!
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