I am an adult child of a preacher.  I’ve grown up in church all my life.  There have been many memory verses and Bible stories that have filled my life.  However, as I am becoming more bold about sharing my faith, I realize I am sharing with people who don’t have a lot of church background or have grown up with a skewed understanding of God.

I’m realizing people at times need bite size chunks of information to entice them to God, rather than repel them by offering too much information in one sitting.

So, if I could summarize the three most important attributes of God someone should know they are:

1. God is Beyond Our Imagination

God is above all we can say or think.  That statement may bring a moment of pause. Everything passing through our human brain is finite.  A brain that has a beginning and an end to everything.  A brain that even with extreme imagination comes to a blockade.

That blockade of our mind is what keeps us from an unfettered understanding of the limitless, never-ending, immensity of God.  For a more detailed description of God’s immensity read, “How Big Is God.”

2. God is Absolutely Good

Growing up I knew God was good, but I didn’t understand He is absolutely good.  Key word is ABSOLUTELY.  I walked around waiting for God’s lightning to strike or the next bad thing to happen to punish me.  It has taken reading and searching scripture to see that God has ONLY good for those who LOVE him.  Why do we have the thought of God’s anger?  It is our FEAR that God treats us like we humans treat each other.  Remember the first attribute mentioned: God is beyond our imagination.  As humans it is hard for us to imagine only goodness when we see so much badness around us.

We have to remember badness enters the world through the free will choices of mankind.  The willful choice of humanity to ignore God’s goodness is the badness of this world, not God punishing us.

The LORD is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love.  The LORD is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made.

Psalm 145:8-9

I encourage you to read verses 14-21 to see the additional attributes of God’s goodness.

3.  God is Love

It is love that encapsulates the beyond imagination and goodness of God!  If we could know, that we know, that we know God loves us our world would be turned upside down.

God’s love again can’t compare to what we as humans “know” as love.  In the Greek language, depending on where you search, there are at least 8 different words (meanings) to our one English word “love”.  Let’s look at the top four most often referenced in the Bible and then identify God’s love.  This comparison will help us understand why the word love doesn’t fully grasp the depth of God’s love from human comprehension.

Eros: passionate romantic love

Philia: love of friends (brotherly)

Storge: love between family members

Agape: charitable love of mankind

God’s love surpasses anything humans can imagine or offer.  It is this Agape love that God had and demonstrated through giving His only son, Jesus as the sacrificial payment to restore us to right relationship with our Father God.  “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that whoever believes in Him (Son, Jesus), they will receive eternal life” (John 3:16).  For a more detailed description of God’s rescue plan read, “The Great Exchange.”

So, if you need to share God to another person, these three attributes of God are a great place to start:  1) God is Beyond Our Imagination, 2) God is Absolutely Good, and 3) God is Love.