Who Is God?

Theologians have some big words to describe God: omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient.

Omnipresent means God is everywhere all the time. He existed before creation. Although the earth was “formless and empty,” the Spirit of God “was hovering over the waters” (Gen. 1:2). Later, when Moses asked God at the burning bush Whom he should tell the Israelites had sent him, God told him to say, “I AM has sent me to you” (Ex. 3:14, ESV). “I AM” means He is always present; there is no past or future for Him.

Omnipotent means all-powerful. God created the entire universe out of nothing; He spoke it into existence. The author of Hebrews describes Jesus as “the radiance of the glory of

God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power” (Heb. 1:3a, ESV). Just as God spoke the universe into being, it is also held together by His powerful word.

Omniscient means God is all-knowing. The psalmist writes, “Great is our LORD and mighty in power; his understanding has no limit” (Ps. 147:5), and Paul writes, “Oh, how great are God’s riches and wisdom and knowledge! How impossible it is for us to understand his decisions and his ways” (Rom. 11:33, NLT)!

All that can make God seem like something huge, out there, far away. And of course it is impossible for us, as finite creatures, to fully understand an infinite God. But the other attribute of God is that He is all-loving (omnibenevolent). He loves you so much that He wants to enter your heart and dwell there, and by letting Him in, you are able to have an intimate relationship with your Creator. As the apostle John says:

“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. … God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them” (1 John 4:7-12, 16b).

God invites you to get to know Him. Spend time in His Word and ask Him to reveal Himself to you. “‘You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,’ declares the Lord” (Jer. 29:13-14a).