Your Image of God Creates You!

Your image of God creates you. This is why it is so important that we see God as loving and benevolent and why good theology is still important.

One mistaken image of God that keeps us from receiving grace is the idea that God is a cruel tyrant. People who have been raised in an atmosphere of threats of punishment and promises of reward are programmed to operate with this cheap image of God. They need deep healing, because they are actually attached to a punitive notion of God. Many experienced this foundational frame for reality as children, and it is hard to let go. It gives a kind of sick coherence to their world.

Unfortunately, it's much easier to organize people around fear and hatred than around love. Most people who want to hold onto power view God as vindictive and punitive. Powerful people actually prefer this worldview, because it validates their use of intimidation.

Richard Rohr, Blog January 26,2016

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Our image of God creates us

So what does your God look like?

No, don’t start out talking about God!

We can’t start there in this process, for we are too programmed

We spout “belief” without even really thinking about what we say,

what the implications are!

I think we need to start with simple, concrete things

How do I live?

With love, compassion, generosity?

Or in fear, hating and grasping?

Whose voices do I listen to?

What is the message of the people I choose to follow?

Do they speak of equity and justice,

or of fear and exclusion?

Do I identify with people carrying food to the food bank,

or people carrying guns into McDonald's?

How do I see myself?

Do I see myself as embraced by Sacred love,

or judged and prime for punishment?

That, I think, is how we get to our image of God

All too often I find that I preach a God of forgiveness and acceptance

But when I look at how I view myself, I know the vestiges of that

“other God”, who is demanding and punitive, still lingers in my soul

O Sacred One

Create in me an open space

Into which you might come

And reveal yourself

As the God Jesus talked about

And revealed