The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and great in faithful love. (Psalms 145:8)
A.W. Tozer profoundly stated, “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” When thinking about God, do you sometimes see him as a sweet, old grandpa in the sky, who laughs it off every time a person sins? Or do you view God more as an aggravated police officer, who’s got his baton in his hand, ready to smack you over the head with it? Of course, these are definitely two extremes on the spectrum. But you’ll be surprised how our perceptions tend to drift toward these views, when we’re not frequently allowing the Scriptures to reveal to us who God really is. Whatever your view of God is, that’s the most important thing about you, because it will shape your relationship with him. And your relationship with God is the most important thing in life (Jn. 17:3).
Here in Psalm 145:8, the author quotes Exodus 34:6, a description of God that is considered to be one of the most quoted verses in the Old Testament. If you don’t have this verse memorized yet, you should totally spend the rest of today saying it aloud until you do. It’s literally the John 3:16 of the Old Testament! Let God teach you about what he is like. Let the sacred Scriptures shape the way you see God. Be discerning about what comes into your mind about God, and check to see if it’s in harmony with what God has said is true about himself. This is so important!
As Tozer explained “For this reason the gravest question before the Church is always God Himself, and the most portentous fact about any man is not what he at a given time may say or do, but what he in his deep heart conceives God to be like. We tend by a secret law of the soul to move toward our mental image of God.” And so, what’s your current mental image of God? Have you drifted? Whether you’re aware of it or not, you’re being impacted by it. So let the Scriptures help you, “The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and great in faithful love.”