6. Scripture, God’s written word, is essential for me to develop a proper image of God.

What Scripture passages, stories, and images most influence your image of God?

What role does Jesus play in forming your image of God?

Scripture can be a resource for informing us about God, but it can also be a source of transforming our relationship with God. How has the Bible shaped how you connect with God?

We can read the Bible but we can also let the Bible “read” us. How has the Bible read you recently?

Culture and human relationships will always fall short of providing proper images of God. So, where can we go? We can go to God’s written word. 

The Bible is essential in both learning to hear God and developing a correct image of His posture towards us. In Scripture we encounter many faces of God—we see Him as loving, forgiving, judging, angry, compassionate, tender, harsh, and so on. 

We find images of God that are humanlike while others are images from nature: a rock, a mother hen, a raging storm, lightning, etc. Even more helpful, the life and stories of Jesus offer abundant examples of how God is, how God acts, and how God feels towards us. 

When learning to understand who God really is, reading the Gospels is an ideal place to start. Jesus is God incarnate, so He is the best illustration of who God really is. However, no single image completely captures who God is. 

All the images in the Bible, even if added together, would still fail to represent all of who God really is. But by being familiar with these images of God from Scripture, the Holy Spirit can help us develop an accurate image of who God is. 

The Spirit can use these images to balance us when we over-emphasize a characteristic of God.  Or He can give us an image specifically suited for the situation we find ourselves in.