God-Thoughts

What is God like?  No, really.  Who is the One True God?  Can my pea-brain truly comprehend the magnitude and majesty of God?  The Bible gives us many descriptions of the holiness, beauty, characteristics, and attributes of God.  I love what the prophet Amos has to say recorded in Amos 4:13.

“He who forms the mountains, who creates the wind, and who reveals his thoughts to mankind, who turns dawn to darkness, and treads on the heights of the earth—the Lord God Almighty is his name.”

Let’s unpack and unfold this beautiful Scripture together.  Start your imagination engine and let’s take a ride!

God is “He who forms the mountains.”  As a child, I would create frog houses from wet sand pressed around my foot.  Then I would carefully slide my foot out.  Ta Daaa!  I knew little frogs were lined up in the shadows just waiting for their new home!  Our great big God formed the mountains with His hands.

He “creates the wind.”  Can you see Him blowing the wind as it encircles the earth?  “He makes clouds rise from the ends of the earth; he sends lightning with the rain and brings out the wind from his storehouses” (Psalm 135:7).

He “reveals His thoughts to mankind.”  To me, this is the pinnacle of this verse!  It’s like sweetness in the middle of a jelly-filled donut!  God’s Word says that I can think God-thoughts!  Wow!  Romans 12:2 tells me I am transformed by the renewing of my mind as I read and meditate on God’s Word.  As a believer and follower of Jesus Christ, I have the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2:16).  Therefore, as God so determines, He can use me in the gifts of His Spirit.  “To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit” (2 Cor. 12:8).  His thoughts in my mind and spirit usher in peace and joy.

Our God “turns dawn to darkness,” and He also turns darkness to dawn.  Does He have a heavenly light switch up there?  Only He can do that, and only He can shine His light on me as I walk through earth’s valley of the shadow of death.  He turns my night into day.  He is my eternal Light and Hope.

He “treads on the heights of the earth.”  Now that’s BIG!  “His way is in the whirlwind and the storm, and clouds are the dust of his feet” (Nahum 1:3).  “On that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem, and the Mount of Olives will be split in two from east to west, forming a great valley, with half of the mountain moving north and half moving south (Zech. 14:4).  Our eyes will see the Lord one day soon.

“The Lord Almighty is his name.”  Yes, He is a great big God, more wonderful and loving that my mind can comprehend or ever imagine.  But the thing that blows me away more than anything else is the fact that He desires to reveal His thoughts to me.  He wants more than anything to share His heart and life with me.  Me!  The Lord Almighty and me on the same wave-length!  That’s an amazing thought in itself!

So what’s the catch?  What does God require of me?  Amos goes on to tell us in 5:4, 6, and 14 to “seek the Lord and live.”  “Seek good, not evil, that you may live.  Then the Lord God Almighty will be with you, just as you say he is” (Amos 5:14).