WHEN YOU THINK ABOUT GOD.

I’m sure most people have seen “The Wizard of Oz?” That movie was produced way back in 1939, and it still captivates viewers of all ages as they travel with Dorothy and company down the Yellow Brick Road to see the great and powerful Oz. I can’t count how many times I’ve watched that old classic. If you remember, when they finally get a meeting with the Wizard, they find him to be very mean and cruel. He is a being full of fire and rage. He insults them, yells at them, bullies them and scares them half to death, especially the Cowardly Lion who literally faints from terror before Oz.

In that movie, it’s like the Oz represents God. I think the same negative way Oz is portrayed in the first encounter Dorothy and the gang had with him is the same way many people picture God today. The picture they have hanging in their minds about God looks like this: God: He is mean, angry, and always upset with me. He thinks I am a burden and a loser. He is not someone I can get close to, share with, or really have a personal relationship with. I must walk on eggshells whenever I am around God. He is someone I need to be afraid of and stay away from.

WHAT A LIE FROM HELL!

God is not anything like the angry Wizard from Oz. He is much like the Father in the story of the Prodigal Son. When the pig pen smelling, sinful prodigal finally returns home in humility and brokenness, his father does not berate him and heap guilt and condemnation on his head. He doesn’t yell at him, insult him and cast him out like the Wizard of Oz did.

The true God runs to him, embraces him, kisses him, forgives him, and receives him with great joy! He puts a robe on his back, a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. And if that were not enough, he then throws a party for his son who has come home! He kills the fattened calf because there’s gonna be a big celebration as the Father rejoices in the return of His son.

MAYBE YOU NEED TAKE DOWN YOUR PICTURE OF GOD!

Who does God look more like to you: the angry Wizard of Oz or the loving Father of the Prodigal? Could it be that one of the big reasons you find it so hard to share your heart and life with God is because of your negative, warped view of God? Don’t you think it is time to hang the real picture of God on the wall of your mind?

Jesus said, “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (Jn. 8:32). Without a doubt, the greatest truth you could ever learn is the truth about the Person of God. A. W. Tozer once said, “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.”

Within our verses for today, God describes Himself to Moses and it certainly doesn’t resemble the Oz. Listen again to what the Word of God says, “And the LORD passed by before him (Moses), and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.”

WOW! What an awesome God we serve! What a friend we have in Jesus! Don’t believe the devil’s lies concerning God. Our God is One who the Bible says is, “a Friend that sticketh closer than a brother.” And He is the best Friend a person could ever have! If you’ll turn to Him, trust Him, you’ll find Him to be your best friend and wrap His strong arms of love, forgiveness and grace around you today!

Think it over…🙏