1567) We all have pictures and ideas in our heads about who God is and how he operates, but have you ever wondered if these ideas are accurate?

Many of us have the image of God that we do from our childhoods and life experiences. We may think of him as a loving being or as one who doles out punishments, but Isaiah 30:18 might give us a better understanding of God.

Here, we are told that God yearns to be gracious with us; grace meaning we get good things from him we don’t deserve. Isaiah also tells us in this verse that God is looking for ways to give us compassion. These two things are wonderful to contemplate and I think if we could embrace this fully, we would be different people. But there is something else in this verse that’s easy to overlook after these two things, and that is the Lord is the God of justice. Why is this important?

If God is just and he knows what I do and don’t deserve, I wouldn’t think he’d want to give me graciousness and compassion and yet, he does. Why? Because God can look at me justly only because I have been forgiven and have become his child. It’s not about what I have done but what he has. This very thing makes me just in God’s eyes, therefore I can receive graciousness and compassion.

Perhaps it would do us good to readjust our thoughts of God from time to time. It’s easy to have the wrong idea, but the Bible gives us help in this area.