Who is God???

Proverbs 1:7
"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge,
but fools despise wisdom and discipline"

The word knowledge in this verse means experiential knowledge. It's like you know an apple is sweet because you ate the apple. You experience the sweetness of the apple.

Are you sure you know the REAL God? Yes, all of us "know" that God is a loving God, we "know" that God wants to be with us, etc. He always forgives our sins, bla bla bla...BUT..How much do you actually know about God??

We might be worshiping false image of God without we knowing it.

How did we develop this distorted image of God?

1. Past Experience

Let me tell you my story

When I was young, I often made my father angry. When he was angry, he wouldn't speak and ignore me for days or even weeks. I have to come to him and say "Dad, I'm sorry". My dad usually will say " What for?". I had to admit to him what I did wrong and tell him that I'm sorry again. If I'm lucky enough, he will say "Okay" but there were times where he didn't accept my apology and he would continue to ignore me, until I came again to him after a couple of days and ask for his forgiveness again. (My dad is a good man, I am proud of him. It's just he was hard on me when I was a kid)

This distort my image of God. I thought "Since God is my heavenly father, he must be like my father" So whenever I sinned I will come to God and ask for His forgiveness again and again. I was afraid, not sure that God would forgive me even after I ask for his forgiveness.

One day, I was reading bible alone and God showed me 1 John 1:9
"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and purify us from all our unrighteousness."

It shocked me. I realized that God will surely forgive my sins if I confess it before Him and repent. I do not have to ask His forgiveness and worried that He won't forgive my sins. He is NOT like my earthly father at all

I learned that what we experienced might distort our image of God. GOD wants to reveal His real self.
God reveals Himself through many things, but I believe during this season of reading Psalms, He wants to show His characters to us through these Psalms we are reading

2. Idol in our hearts/Covetousness

We want many things in our lives. We want to get into good schools, we want to get good grades, we want more $$, we want to have girl friend, etc etc etc. The list can go on and on and on.

Nothing wrong with wanting something.

But the question is: Do you treasure all these more than God? Do you treasure your study more than God? Do you treasure your future more than God? Do you treasure your friends more than God?

A good example from the Bible would be this guy called Balaam.(You can read from Numbers 22 - 24)

Balaam is a prophet. By right he suppose to follow God and obey God. However there is this king(Balak) who wants to hire him to curse the Israelites.

As a prophet, Balaam knows very well that God is in Israelites side. (Numbers 22:12 But God said to Balaam "Do not go with them. You must not put curse on those people because they are blessed")

But Balak the king said (Numbers 22: 16-17): "Do not let anything keep you from coming to me, because I will reward you handsomely and do whatever you say." It's like a king telling you, I will give you anything you want! I will give you 100 million bucks if you come and curse the Israelites.

The end result was Balaam went to try to curse Israelites. And God was angry because of what Balaam did (ver 21-39)

Are we like Balaam? When circumstances arise, will we obey God or will we do what seems good for us? We change God's image when we deliberately disobeying Him because we want something that we perceive good for us.

May be it's a sin. We enjoy sinning so much and we distort God's image, saying that God will always forgive us. It is okay to sin. We abused God's mercy. While actually we learn from the bible that God is a just God. He doesn't leave sin unpunished. We distorted God's image.

May be it's something that we want. We want to have good grades, so we cheat. Saying that everybody do it, God doesn't know what we are doing. Actually we know from the bible that GOD is all-knowing God.

So how???
Psalm 19:7-11
"The law of the Lord is perfect reviving the soul.......
By them your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward."

Psalm 119:105
"Your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path"

It's through the Word of God we know who God really is.

God wants to have intimate relationship with you. He wants to be your friend, your best friend in fact. But how can you be a friend for someone if you do not know the person well?