Reflecting on God
Reflection (noun): Serious thought or consideration.
Synonyms: thought, thinking, consideration, contemplation, study, deliberation, pondering, meditation, musing, rumination, cogitation, brooding, agonizing, cerebration.
With an understanding of reflection in mind, take a few minutes to answer this question:
What comes to mind when you reflect on, when you seriously consider and picture, God?
In my own reflections on this question, I noticed how my answer has changed over the years. I’ve also noticed how it can change from day to day and even within a single day. With these realizations, I am struck by the profound truth of this quote:
“We tend… to move toward our mental image of God.” (A.W. Tozer)
As I’ve learned more about who God is by spending time with him in prayer and Bible study and by interacting with him in my daily life through his Holy Spirit, my mental image of him has grown. In other words, my life reflects how and what I think about God. In fact, how much I think of him impacts my focus too, which in turn impacts the direction of my life.
Adding to this idea, consider this quote too:
“What comes to our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” (A.W. Tozer)
David’s Example
King David is described as a man after God’s own heart and as someone who would do God’s will (1 Samuel 13:14 & Acts 13:22). If you know David’s story at all (see 1 Samuel 16 through 1 Kings 2), you know he was far from perfect and made some grave mistakes. You also know that he continually pursued God and that his thinking about God was dynamic (see the Psalms). Here’s one example:
“LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory in the heavens. Through the praise of children and infants you have established a stronghold against your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger. When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them? You have made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honor. You made them rulers over the works of your hands; you put everything under their feet: all flocks and herds, and the animals of the wild, the birds in the sky, and the fish in the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas. LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!” (Psalm 8)
David’s reflections and his life poignantly illustrate Tozer’s words and give us an example to consider as we reflect on what we think about God.
With these reflections in mind, I leave you with one final question: Are you moving in the right direction?
