How we view God is so important because a faulty view of the Lord can not only prevent a person from enjoying His fellowship, but can also cause one to not even come to Him for salvation.
The late Pastor John Stott provides insight on this important question: “Many people visualize a God who sits comfortably on a distant throne, remote, aloof, uninterested, and indifferent to the needs of mortals, until, it may be, they can badger him into taking action on their behalf. Such a view is wholly false. The Bible reveals a God who, long before it even occurs to man to turn to him, while man is still lost in darkness and sunk in sin, takes the initiative, rises from his throne, lays aside his glory, and stoops to seek until he finds him.”1
While it is true that we are all dead in our sins and trespasses and according to (Romans 3:11): “…there is no one who seeks God,” it is also true that if we view God as mysterious, aloof, and unknowable, then when He reveals Himself to us we may miss His calling entirely.
I know in my own life, as a former atheist, while I didn’t believe that God even existed, I was always open minded and when a friend of mind gave me a copy of the New Testament I told him I would read it. And my open-mindedness to be willing to examine the evidence for God was key to God drawing me to Himself. I never sought after God – but He sought after me! And somehow in some mysterious way God opened my blind eyes and allowed me to see that I was indeed a sinner and He was a wonderful Savior.
And I believe that not having any preconceived notions of who God is helped me learn His true nature by just reading the Scriptures and allowing them to reveal His wonderful nature to me. For many people they view God as distant, impersonal and unknowable. As a result when God tries to reveal Himself to them their faulty preconceived idea of Him causes them to miss His calling.
While salvation is a mystery, God is not. He is always willing to reveal Himself to those who are open to being confronted with their sin and allowing His awesome love to break through their unholy heart. And the more we allow God to reveal Himself and His nature to us the sweeter our fellowship with Him will become. My friends when we really get to know and experience just how awesome and wonderful Jesus is, life will never be the same again and we will find that His love for us endures forever!
1 John R.W. Stott Quotes (Author of The Cross of Christ) (goodreads.com)