Let God Be Who He Is
Recently we witnessed the selecting an installing of a new leader for the Roman Catholic Church. We have a new Pope, Leo XIV. What a daunting responsibility, to be the leader and guide for more than a billion people who belong to the Roman Catholic Church, but also for the billions more who are indirectly influenced by the lives of Catholics. Awareness of such a responsibility, were it even possible, would be overwhelming. Pray for this new leader, a mere mortal like us, that he himself may be obedient to the leading of God’s Spirit. It is our prayer, that Pope Leo XIV, himself , demonstrate how “the sheep of His pasture” recognize the voice of the Good Shepherd, and obediently and joyfully follow His directions.
The tasks of God’s chosen leaders are many. But, none is more important than to teach God’s people to “fear the Lord your God”, which is , to live in holy awe before Him. The Bible is not about getting people to believe in God. It assumes that we all do. The Bible is interested in our response to God. Will we let God be who he says He is? Will we let God be who the Bible declares and reveals Him to be? Majestic in holiness, wise and merciful, righteous and the one before whom all peoples will stand in judgement.
The danger we face is whittling Him down to size, making Him in our image, like a really big one of us. Let God be God. He is the God of Creation, the God of the Exodus, He is the Author of Life, the God of the Resurrection, He is the Alpha and the Omega.
As Eugene Peterson puts it, we must “guard against any blasphemous reproductions made in our own image, something that’s attractive to the masses so that it can be marketed to the masses.
To must guard against all such blasphemous chumminess with the Almighty, the Bible talks of the “fear of the Lord.”.
It does so not to scare us but to bring us to awesome attention before the overwhelming grandeur of God”.
The greatest leaders are those who know who God is, and humbly and obediently set the example of following Him. They, simply put, “let God be God”.
Thanks for listening.
