We Are Defined by our Perception of God
A.W. Tozar said "What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us." This quote is the foundation for this video in which I emphasize the importance of seek dilig
We are Defined by our Perception of God
Kevin Probst
6/25/25
Our lives are most certainly molded by our perception of who God is. Throughout our lives we acquire vast amounts of knowledge but there is no greater knowledge that can impact us more than our knowledge of God. Our understanding of who God is affects the direction of our lives, our emotions, our ambitions and the way we choose to respond to the many challenges we face in life.
I like how A.W. Tozar addressed the importance of our conceptual knowledge of who God is: "What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us." (Knowledge of the Holy, p. 4)
Nothing exceeds the importance of having a proper and accurate perception of who God is. We often settle for the simplest description of God available but in doing so we do him an injustice. It is more difficult but much more rewarding to search the complexities of the true nature of God as revealed in scripture.
We tend to set parameters around our perception of God to fit our intellectual capability for comprehending who he is. We must step up to the challenge of consciously and deliberately reaching to expand our perception of his nature while acknowledging all the while that he is mostly incomprehensible to us.
A few days ago I observed a deer eating leaves off the branches of a tree. He could only eat what he was capable of reaching. He seemed to very much want those leaves beyond his reach but he was bound by his own limitations. There are some aspects of God’s nature that we will never have access to. We can only know God by what he reveals to us about himself. There is much he has chosen not to reveal.
Hear this story about St. Augustine and feel free to question its historical reliability:
St. Augustine was walking along the shore taking a break from his task of writing a book on the Trinity. As he walked along, he came upon a boy and he observed this boy carrying a container to the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. He filled it with water and walked back up on the beach and poured it in a hole that he had dug. He repeated this over and over. Finally Augustine asked the boy, “What are you doing?” The boy replied, “I am pouring the Mediterranean Sea into this hole that I’ve dug.” Augustine informed the boy that what he was doing was futile. “It is not possible to pour the Mediterranean Sea into the hole.” to which the boy replied to Augustine, “It is also impossible for you, sir, to fit God into a book. Nobody could do that.”
It is certainly not possible to reduce the entirety of who God is into human words. He is beyond our ability to understand. No human language has words capable of describing or truly defining Him. God realizes that our ability to understand has been sullied by the fall of man and our minds are limited by our own depravity. Therefore, he gifted us with faith. Faith is a requirement for our salvation, a perfect knowledge of the nature of God is not.
We must sometimes unlearn our false perceptions of who God is so that we might make room for the reality of his true nature.
There is a popular Christian song we often sing in church entitled “I am a Friend of God.” This song is meant to relay a message of the sort of deep and intimate relationship we can have with God. When my daughter, MacKenzie, was very young she liked this song and sang it with great gusto along with the rest of the congregation. I leaned in to hear my daughter sing because something seemed a bit off. She was singing, “ ‘I am afraid of God’ instead of ‘I am a friend of God’.” She was expressing a perception that God was one to be feared rather than be friended.
This observation reminded me of my childhood years when I, too, had developed a perception that God was like an angry school teacher just waiting for you to step out of line. I thought God to be quick to condemn and eager to flay us for our failures and disobedience. In order for me to have a true perception of a loving, merciful God of grace, a longsuffering God of kindness…I had to unlearn my original perception of a God quick to punish and slow to forgive.
We must feed from the highest branches that we can reach to develop our perception of who God is. And let us be cautious because we live In a culture where God is mostly perceived as being too loving to punish anyone with eternal hell, we must have a balanced perspective and realize that his love does not negate his holy and righteous nature.
To know the one true God we are admonished to search the scriptures. Jesus revealed to his followers that he is revealed through the scriptures. (John 5:39)
An appropriate path to take in trying to learn the true nature of God is relational. Jesus said, “If you really know me, you will know my Father as well.” (John 14:7) God reveals himself to us through the life of his Son. We prepare ourselves to know God by loving “...the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ (Matthew 22:37)
If you love him he will reveal himself to you and you will know him. The more you know him the more you will love him.