God is so much bigger than we often realize. He is so much greater than we ever give Him credit for. Have you ever thought about the attributes of God? Have you ever studied them? Over the next semester, we are going to be diving into specific attributes of God. We will learn a lot about Him and my hope is that we will grow closer to Him.
1. How would you describe what a characteristic or attribute is?
2. In what ways would you say that we are like God or can share characteristics with Him?
3. In what ways would you say that we are not like God and cannot share a characteristic with Him?
When we look at the attributes of God, we can break them down into two categories: incommunicable and communicable.
Incommunicable attributes belong to God alone. These are attributes that we cannot obtain or have ourselves. No one besides God has them.
Communicable attributes define God, but can also be possessed by people. These would be things that we have or we can grow in.
4. What would you say are some of God’s incommunicable attributes?
When we look at some of these attributes, we begin to understand and know God more. We know that we can never fully understand or experience these in our lives, but it helps us understand who God is more.
Some incommunicable attributes of God would be:
- Holy
- Immutable
- Infinite
- Omnipotent
- Omnipresent
- Omniscient
- Self-Existent
- Self-Sufficient
- Sovereign
- Spirit
- Transcendent
- Unique
I know some of these might seem like big words. I hope that you do not feel so overwhelmed by them that you do not want to learn them, but rather that you would see how big and great our God truly is and that your trust in Him would be strengthened.
We will be spending a lot more time on some of these attributes over the next couple of weeks, so we will not spend a big amount of time on these right now.
Read Revelation 15:4.
5. Why can we not be “holy”? Why is God alone “holy”?
6. How does learning about God’s incommunicable attributes cause us to trust in Him more?
Some of God’s communicable attributes include:
- Good
- Hateful
- Justice
- Knowledge
- Rational
- Love
- Mercy
- Speech
- Truthful
- Wisdom
These attributes are a little more understandable for us because these are things that we can also obtain. We, however, will never be able to perfect these attributes. They will always be something that we continue to grow in. God is perfect in all of these attributes and in every way.
7. How are we able to share in some of these attributes?
8. Why do we understand these attributes more after being in a relationship with God?
Read 2 Peter 3:18.
9. What are we called to grow in?
We are called to grow in our faith and knowledge of God. We will continue to learn more about these attributes over the semester. We need to make sure that we are growing as well. Having more knowledge does not necessarily mean you are growing. We are growing when we learn more knowledge and apply it to our lives.
10. How can we apply the knowledge of God in our lives?
11. How can we continue to grow?
When we face any circumstance in our lives, we can look to Him and who He is. When we know and remember who He is, that will help us tackle all of life’s situations. Also, it will help us glorify Him in all things.