Creator, Father, King #4

God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.

AS HUMANS, WE LOVE to see, smell, hear, taste, and touch. That’s why the world around us is so wonderful. There are so many good things for our senses to enjoy.

Take our sense of sight, for example. With our eyes, we can behold a gorgeous Maui sunset, or the snowcapped Swiss Alps, or a cloudless night with a million stars magnificently winking at us. We can see dolphins dancing through the surf, stallions sprinting across the turf, and eagles soaring through the sky.

But the Being who created and rules the universe is completely invisible to us. We cannot see God.

What’s It Mean?

As today’s verse says, God is a spirit. Maybe this surprises you. But God’s spiritual nature is such an important topic to understand that for the next two days, we’re going to discuss this aspect of God’s character.

God’s invisibility doesn’t mean he’s not real. Some people don’t believe in God just because they can’t see him. But if something’s existence is determined merely by human sight, then by that logic, we’d have to conclude that wind doesn’t exist either. This, of course, is absurd. Even though we can’t see wind, we know it exists because we see its effects when it rustles tree leaves, or fills a yacht’s sail, or causes great damage in a hurricane.

Likewise, even though we can’t see God, we know he exists because we see “his effects,” so to speak. We see the beautiful world he created. We marvel at how he keeps the entire universe running in an orderly way. We rejoice at how he works in human hearts.

The apostle Paul addresses this in Romans 1:18-20 when he talks about “sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness. They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them. For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.”

In other words, not believing in God just because you can’t see him is not a good enough excuse. Likewise, Psalm 14:1 says, “Only fools say in their hearts, ‘There is no God.’”

Don’t be a fool! Look further than your eyes and believe in the God who is spirit.

Now What?

Pray for the faith to believe in the God you cannot see.

Did You Know?

In John 20:29, Jesus blessed everyone who believes in him without the benefit of seeing him!