We are in our third week of the Attributes of God Series we’ve been doing over the past few weeks. If you’ve missed the previous weeks, I highly recommend catching up when you have time! So far, we’ve talked about how God is infinite and how He is Incomprehensible. And for me personally, spending time thinking about meditating on these truths has been super transformative and restorative for my personal faith and walk with Christ.

I know thinking on these kinds of topics can be a bit overwhelming to delve into on your own, that why I thought walking through a book together would be a fun and hopefully helpful exercise for us to go through. I know a lot of  you aren’t necessarily interested in learning about this type of content, but I think enough of you are.

And plus, if  you’re curious about WHO God says He is, THIS is a great place to start! It’s important that we understand the true God and make sure that our knowledge of Him aligns with who He is says He is. Because a lot of the time, we tend to make up our own version of God based on our experiences and it’s not actually based in truth. (I talked more about this in the series introduction – where I discussed WHY I think talking about and knowing God’s attributes is essential).

We are continuing on in “None Like Him” by Jen Wilkin this week and looking at God’s SELF-EXISTENT nature.

I’m excited to chat about what I’ve learned with you guys so let’s dive in!

The Attributes of God Series

If you missed the series introduction post, I announced the Attributes of God series there and explained a little bit about WHY we should care to know more about God and his nature. But for a quick recap, over the next several weeks, we’re going to be discussing the incommunicable attributes of God in the order that they’re presented in Jen Wilkin’s book, None Like Him.

God is Self-Existent

God is SELF-EXISTENT and needs nobody but himself to exist.

John 5:26 says He “has life in Himself.” He also doesn’t have a point of origin because God has always been. God is uncreated. Can you think of anything else that is ‘uncreated’? I haven’t been able to! This is because God literally created everything including you and me. 

Let’s look at some of points I loved from this chapter of “None Like Him” by Jen Wilkin. 

Our Creativity is Limited, but His is not. 

We often think we are super creative, and to be honest, I’m often so inspired and blown away by what I see people create in this world. But if you really think about it, we are really just putting existing items into a specific form which expresses what most makes sense to us.

God is the true CREATOR because He can create something out of literally NOTHING. He spoke creation into existence WITH HIS WORDS, PEOPLE!!! Now that is creative!

What is really cool, though, is that he allows us to express ourselves creatively as humans to reflect the likeness of who He is as a Creator God.

When I see beautiful art, watch well designed clothes on a runway, taste an amazing dish, or a beautifully decorated house I am so inspired by the people that brought it all together.

When I think about it through this lens though, I am in AWE of how God expresses Himself through people. To think, the things we see people create is the limited expression of God’s creative power is mind blowing to me because He is infinitely more creative than what can feel so impressive to me here on this earth. This directs my heart to worship God because I am reminded that everything originates in Him. 

Stewards of Creation. 

God owns everything because He made it. 

Jen points out, “If everything created owes its existence to God, then nothing created truly belongs to another created thing.”Does this change the way you view your stuff?

It is incredibly easy for me to think my stuff is…..well, mine.  But, really I am a steward of what God has given to me. We are also stewards of the created world around us, including people.

Our hearts so easily slip into worshipping the world and people around us though, but God wants our worship. When we worship the Creator first, we are then able to care for and steward his creation properly. 

Creative Control. 

We humans are SO forgetful.

This whole stewardship vs. ownership thing is something we lose sight of quite often. Whether it is our home, job, relationships, hobbies – we start to grasp for the creative control.

We want to see ourselves as the creators and owners, but when we go down this road we begin to make it about ourselves. We start grappling for validation for “our efforts” and taking credit when we don’t really have business doing so.

Our “creation” begins with God and when we keep this truth front and center we can create and live freely because our value isn’t placed in what we create, but he Creator. 

Something from Nothing.

 I mentioned earlier how God is the ultimate creative because he created everything from absolutely nothing. This truth has actually served as a huge encouragement to me.

God can bring life to places and people where no life seems to exist. We may see broken relationships or no job and things may look pretty bleak at times, but He can CREATE something from nothing.

Why is this encouraging?

It encourages me to pray with HOPE. When my sight with people or circumstances seems to see nothing, I can pray in FAITH that God would create something there.

Whether He chooses to or not is up to Him and I will trust he knows best, but I don’t have to be the creator within relationships or circumstances – I can look to HIM who created ALL THINGS to create in my life! So don’t be afraid to ask him to speak Life into your circumstances! 

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Verses for Meditation

There is a section at the end of each chapter which includes verses for mediation I am going to include below that I hope you find helpful.

• Genesis 1:1
• Exodus 3:14
• John 1:1-4
• John 5:26
• 2 Corinthians 5:17
• Colossians 1:15-17
• Revelation 4:11

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Tech Background To Reflect Throughout The Week

Since we’re doing this study week by week, I thought it would be fun to add in a little extra value for those of you joining me in this study. I wanted to make these backgrounds for you to put on your phone so that  you could think a bout, pray, and meditate on God’s self-existent nature throughout the week.

Here are 3 options. Click on the text hyperlink below this image to download the full resolution.

Click to Download:

One // Two // Three