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First Impressions can be Wrong

When I was in Bible College, I met a guy that I did not really like that much. He did not particularly like me either. We were completely different. We never fought or had any huge disagreements, but we did not go out of our way to spend any time together either.

Then I moved to Estevan and guess who was living here. The guy I avoided in college was the only other single college age guy in the congregation, so we were sort of stuck hanging out together. As it turned out, we found out that we were more alike than we first assumed. Twenty years later, he is still one of my best friends.

Sometimes we just sort of “get off on the wrong foot” with people. We assume that we know who they are because we have heard certain things about them. We put people in categories only to find out later that we were completely wrong in our assessment of them.

Could it be that people do the same thing with God? I mean, we all have an impression of what he is like, but have we really spent the time to get to know him? Do we really know what he is like, or are we just going on what we have heard, or think about him?

Sometimes, it is good to take a second look. In an effort to help us do that, listen to how David describes God in Psalm 103.

“The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust. As for man, his days are like grass, he flourishes like a flower of the field; the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more. But from everlasting to everlasting the Lord's love is with those who fear him (verses 8-17).

Some would not describe God the way David does.

Maybe we have had the wrong impression all along.

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