Thoughtful Thursday: Our Transcendent God

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Jeremiah 23:23-24 (NET)

23 “Do you people think that I am some local deity and not the transcendent God?” the LORD asks.  24 “Do you really think anyone can hide himself where I cannot see him?” the LORD asks. “Do you not know that I am everywhere?” the LORD asks.

Isaiah 55:8 (NET)

8 “Indeed, my plans are not like your plans, and my deeds are not like your deeds, 9 for just as the sky is higher than the earth, so my deeds are superior to your deeds and my plans superior to your plans.”

Job 11:7 (ESV)

“Can you find out the deep things of God? Can you find out the limit of the Almighty?”

Romans 11:33-36 (NET)

33 “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how fathomless his ways! 34 For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor? 35 Or who has first given to God, that God needs to repay him? 36 For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever! Amen.

Psalm 113:5-6

Who can compare to the LORD our God, who sits on a high throne? 6 He bends down to look at the sky and the earth.”

John 8:23

“Jesus replied, “You people are from below; I am from above. You people are from this world; I am not from this world.””

How do I even begin to write about God’s greatness?  How is it that such grace has come to us that we can know Him? Today I am struck by how much higher His ways and thoughts are from ours.  We do not even recognize how small and needful we are, apart from His grace and the Holy Spirit revealing our soul’s heart cry for someone greater than ourselves.

Fans of movie stars are in awe at the sight of what they consider greatness, but those stars are merely creations. So many things in this world grab our attention and worship, but none of them are truly worth such devotion.  Only our living God is worthy of such respect.  We worship a God Who is greater than us – truly worthy of our worship.

All at once we are undone that God can see into our inmost soul – our thoughts before we conceive them, our motivations, our every action.  To be so known and yet accepted by a Holy God is too much too completely comprehend.

How do we know this awesome God, whose face we cannot behold, lest we perish?  Whose presence cannot be contained?  Whose Holiness is so foreign to our fleshly mortality?  Who is sovereign over all activity on earth?  Who, in His genius designed every aspect of creation down to the smallest particle?  Who is Omniscient, knowing all?  Who is outside time?  Who has always been?  Who would establish righteous laws and then fulfill them by choosing to come live among a corrupt, spiritually bankrupt people and lay His life down for them?

This mystery of God’s revelation of Himself to us is miraculous and not able to be fully understood.  Our eyes were blind to His supremacy and our need of Him until He drew us to Himself and caused us to understand.

How beyond words is the fact that we are invited, finite and poor, to fellowship with the Holy One, the Omnipresent and beyond the highest riches – our transcendent God.  But why does His transcendence matter?  Because we were made to worship and though we are easily fascinated with substitutes trying to fill that vacuum, our inmost being longs to worship Someone higher than ourselves.

When we consider a God that is not easily defined or understood, a sense of awe is pervasive within our souls.  To pause and seek what truly matters and to worship the One Who is, Who was, and Who is to come, we are worshiping the One Who is higher than any other entity on this earth for all eternity.  It is in worshiping the Almighty God, the Creator of this universe, that we are doing what we were made to do and find our greatest joy and sense of purpose.  Worshiping the Only One Who is awesome and far above us causes us to rise out of what is perceived as an ordinary life and see the spiritual realities all around us.  It is in worshiping our transcendent God that we are enabled to live in a way which glorifies our Maker and transcends ourselves beyond merely living for the here and now.

Lord, You are awesome, Holy, so much higher than us.  Thank You for drawing us to Yourself. Help us to know You more and to worship You with sincere hearts, lost in Your greatness and found by You.  Give us understanding about how great You are that we would never stray from You.