“Then Moses said to God, ‘If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, “The God of your fathers has sent me to you,” and they ask me, “What is his name?” what shall I say to them?’ God said to Moses, ‘I am who I am…’” (Exodus 3:13-14, ESV).

We were surprised at the Durres conference by a brother and sister, both young Albanian doctors we love from the past, one who stayed in our home during a month of learning in our medical school. He was not a Christian, but his sister found the Lord through a Bible we had given him. After a time of reunion, I told them both we would be praying for them, praying God might give them a wonderful year ahead. The agnostic brother smiled and pointed to his sister, “She will appreciate that.” I smiled back at him and put my hand on his shoulder, “God will bless you through my prayers whether you believe or not. God does not depend on your belief to be who He is.”

Does God depend on my belief to be who He is? It would be silly of me to think so.

God will be God, whatever we think about Him. Our personal theology may or may not picture Him correctly, but He will be who He is, whatever our theology. Even using the same Bible, many of us picture Him in different ways. I suspect God laughs at some of our beliefs, with some He is angry, and with some He cries, but He always loves. And He always works out His purpose in His creation whether we get it right or not. We should try hard to understand Him through His infallible Scripture, but we should never allow theological differences with other Christians to make us proud or disrupt the mission of evangelism we share.

A different question is whether God depends on the way we believe in Him to work His will in us. I think He does. Our Scripture describes how God has voluntarily limited the work He will do in us (and the work He will do through us), limited by the freedom of our will. As Fenelon put it, “The only thing that lies within our power is the direction of our will.” And God honors that freedom enough to let us die forever without Him or to live lives that are totally wasted should we choose to do so.

God will not forcibly make us choose Him as Lord. God will not force us to live a life of mission rather than one of personal gain. God will not forcibly make us obedient. God’s voluntary limit on His own sovereignty does not change who He is for any of us, but it does change whether we will live this life serving Him and whether we will accept His grace to live with Him in glory.

Dear God,

Let me grow in my knowledge of you day by day. And please work in my life to transform my will to become like yours.

Amen