Forever!

Praise the Lord! For it is good to sing praises to our God; for it is pleasant, and a song of praise is fitting. The Lord builds up Jerusalem; he gathers the outcasts of Israel. He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. He determines the number of the stars; he gives to all of them their names. Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; his understanding is beyond measure. The Lord lifts up the humble; he casts the wicked to the ground. (Psalm 147:1-6 ESV).

Today I will continue to look at some of the attributes of God. Simply stated, God Is infinite; this it to say that He is self-existing and without origin. Our reading declares, “Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; his understanding is beyond measure” (v. 5). One of the wonderful things about traveling through the back roads in Texas is the seemingly endless horizon. It reminds me of the infinite nature of God. The fact that God is “self-existent,” that he was created by nothing and has always existed forever, is perhaps one of the most difficult attributes of God for the believer to understand. Because we are limited, grasping the unlimited nature of God is like holding onto water as it rushes down a river. A. W. Tozer wrote: “To admit that there is One who lies beyond us, who exists outside of all our categories, who will not be dismissed with a name, who will not appear before the bar of our reason, nor submit to our curious inquiries: this requires a great deal of humility, more than most of us possess, so we save face by thinking God down to our level, or at least down to where we can manage Him.” Looking through some of my “old” notes I found an article by Adrian Rogers. He said: The name Jehovah is used some 6,800 times in the Bible. It is the personal covenant name of Israel's God. In the King James Version of the Bible, it's translated Lord God. Not only does it speak of God's strength, but also it speaks of the sovereignty of God and the goodness of God. The root of this name means "self-existing," one who never came into being, and one who always will be. When Moses asked God, “Who shall I tell Pharaoh has sent me?" God said, "I AM THAT I AM." Jehovah or Yahweh is the most intensely sacred name to Jewish scribes and many will not even pronounce the name. When possible, they use another name.” All of this means that what God promises lasts as long as He is. Since He is forever, so are His promises! That means time no longer holds me captive. Jesus really is the same “yesterday, today, and forever” (cf. Hebrews 13:8).