God wants us to know Him. He wants our thoughts towards Him and our feelings about Him to be guided by truth. In this episode of Breaking Bread, Ted Witzig Jr. helps us evaluate our God image and provides tips on how to have an increasingly more accurate view of God.

It is important to note:

• There are common inaccurate God images. Below are a few examples:
• • “The God of Impossible Expectations” – God holds us to impossible standards and punishes us when we don’t meet them. He is never satisfied.
  • “The Emotionally-Distant God” – God withdraws from us when we go through struggles and difficulties.
  • “The Gotcha God” – God is out to get us. He doesn’t like to see us happy.  He is always looking for a way to ‘pull the rug out’ from under us.
  • “The Hiding God” – God has a will for me but He won’t tell me what it is and will punish me if I don’t find it.

• There are good ways to recapture an accurate God image. Below are a few suggestions:
• • Don't superimpose your experience onto the scriptures. Instead let the scriptures inform your experiences.
  • Surround yourself with people that model grace and truth and point out God image distortions.
  • Be patient. It takes time to bring healthy correction to our long-held God image. 
  • Memorize Bible verses. Truth is required.
  • Meditate on Bible truth. Personalize the Scriptures by moving the knowledge you’re your head to your heart. 
  • Take time to be still. Sit quietly and deliberately imagine God’s nurturing care, love and reception of you.

Revealing God the Father to human beings was one of the purposes of Christ’s ministry. He wanted His hearers to know God and to view Him accurately. In this episode, Ted Witzig Jr. explains how our God image is formed and the impact that it has on us. While we will never understand God perfectly in this life, we can work to be sure we are not viewing Him through distorted lenses.

It is important to note…

* Everyone has a God concept and a God image.

* How we picture God and believe He feels toward us are very impactful in how we relate to Him.

* Those things we know about God (i.e., ‘head-knowledge’) make up our God concept.

* Our God concept is formed by information that we learn about Him from the Bible and what others teach us.

* Those things we feel about God, including how we picture Him, feelings we feel toward Him, and how we imagine He feels towards us is called our God image.

* Our God image is formed through life experiences including our relationship with major attachment figures (primarily one’s father and mother).

* Positive influences such as love, security, mercy, and relationships with benevolent authority figures lead toward the development of a healthy God image.

* Trauma, mental illness, loss, and wounded trust are all experiences that can have a negative impact on our God image.