January 20, 2026 -- Proverbs 20:12 -- What is God like?

People loved by the Father, in the Spirit's power: Sh'ma ~ hear and obey Jesus!

The hearing ear and the seeing eye,
the LORD has made them both.  Proverbs 20:12 ESV
 
What is God like? He Who formed you in your mother’s womb, is the very gracious Savior Who has given you ears to hear the Gospel and eyes to see His goodness. Unless the LORD opens your ears, everything you hear about God and the truth of Scripture will seem to you like nonsense. Have you heard of ‘bias confirmation’? It is the tendency to pick out ideas, facts and other points of view which support what you already believe. Original sin, that is the sin nature that every person is born with, gives every person a bias against the things of God. The sin nature in a man or a woman will rise to discount or argue against the word of God. It requires the work of the Holy Spirit to completely change a person so that the bias confirmation of wilfulness against God and His goodness is overcome in a person.
 
Romans 10:17 teaches that faith comes by hearing the Word of God. It is critical for the people of God to share with the people around them their thankfulness for the saving work of Jesus. Such testimonies are used by the Holy Spirit to break the power of sin and the attendant bias confirmation against the Living God. The LORD in His great mercy, and steadfast love, works through your verbal testimony to bring others to Himself.
 
The Christian who lives for God in daily life gives off many non-verbal cues that his life is dedicated to the glory of God. This too witnesses to the mercy, kindness and love of God. People, by the powerful presence of the Holy Spirit, will see that you are utterly different from the people around you. You are God’s. You live for God in your public life and in your private life. That is compelling.
 
What is God like? He takes ordinary, sin-biased persons, and transforms them through His Word. He reconciles people to Himself by the cleansing blood of Jesus. He approaches others through your witness and testimony. Even your weaknesses, stumbling back into old patterns of sin, are used by God the Compassionate. Every time you confess your sin, proving your humility and your gratitude to the LORD of heaven and earth, Who rescued you and will complete His work of salvation in you, others see something wonderful. Those who know you well can see it is not the Christian who is amazing, but it is God the all-glorious Who is bringing new life into sinners who could not save themselves. They will see the persistent goodness of God which will not stop until you are perfected in in the image of God.
 
When I am afraid of evils to come, comfort me,
by showing me
that in myself I am a dying condemned wretch,
but that in Christ I am reconciled, made alive and satisfied;
that I am feeble and unable to do any good,
but that in him I can do all things;
that what I now have in Christ is mind in part,
but shortly I shall have it perfectly in heaven. Amen.
Excerpt from: “Humiliation” Valley of Vision: Puritan Prayers and Devotions
 
https://youtu.be/7n145-J8ejg?si=cb1IXocUrRfUp123 Amazing Grace
 

Copyright © 2026 Sh'ma Christian Ministries, All rights reserved.