What Are The Amazing Characteristics of God?

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Knowing God’s commandments is not enough to have a close relationship with Him. Discovering more of Him every day is such a delight for us. For example, we question how much we want to know Him; God wants to reveal himself to us through His words. Through this article, we will marvel through the amazing characteristics of God discussed in Scripture. Many of these characteristics of God are analyzed and written in the Bible by people who have talked directly to Him. The Bible says to praise God for who He is, especially in prayer as David has done in Psalms.

Many see the obvious and most preached about characteristics of God; love, faithfulness and merciful. But, there is more to God’s character than that. Additionally, in the Bible and through this article, you will also learn of God’s characteristics through His declarations.

How Many Characteristics Of God In The Bible Are There?

Like how we react to certain circumstances, God showed different sides of Himself for every situation in the Bible. Although it is impossible to know His infinite nature, the Bible which bears His word can tell us the kind of God He is. We can fathom His personalities through His pronouncements, reactions, and decisions through every story written in the Bible. Here are some of the best characteristics of God that were revealed in the Bible. He is:

Holy

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1 Samuel 2:2  “There is none holy like the Lord: for there is none besides you;

The first word that will come to mind after the word “God” is “holy” because He is indeed, holy. No one in this world or anywhere else is or can be as holy as God. He is altogether perfect, and sinless in every way possible. His divinity will forever be greater than everything ever existed or will exist. God’s holiness has no limit; hence the reason His name is “Holy”.

Merciful

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Psalm 145:8 The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

God’s mercy for us is never-ending. Every time we sin against Him, His forgiveness is already at hand even if we haven’t asked for it yet. He is the God who can forgive a murderer and make him a significant man, which is exactly what He did to Paul. From a person who persecuted Christians, God turned Paul into a person who followed Jesus.

Jeremiah 3:12 Go, proclaim this message toward the north: Return, faithless Israel, declares the LORD, ‘I will frown on you no longer, for I am merciful,’ declares the LORD, ‘I will not be angry forever’

Like in the verse above, God had shown endless mercy to the human race. Even for sins that seem unforgivable, He continues to bestow His understanding to the things we do out of the weakness of our flesh.

Loving

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1 John 4:19 We love because He first loved us.

God is the author of love and love itself. His love for His creatures, especially to us humans, is never-ending. He loves us enough to give His only son for our redemption. He is a loving God who wants what’s best for all His children. There are many ways in which we can see and feel God’s love. We can trust in God’s love for it is patient and kind (1 Corinthians 13:4-8). We can have confidence in God because of His unfailing love and amazing grace (Psalms 136). Also, because one of the main characteristics of God is love, we can then love one another as we love ourselves.

1 John 4:7-8 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

In line with the verse above, living with the guide of God’s love requires us to also share that love with all creatures; especially to our fellow humans. Our Father above wants us to light the world by spreading the love He bestowed us because doing so, we are fulfilling His will for us to act by His examples.

Righteous

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Deuteronomy 10:17 For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe.

Before any human law existed, God’s perfect judgment envelopes this world. His judgments are precise and accurate as He knows all things and all things are from Him. No one can contest His judgment nor anyone can falsify His words. Righteousness is similar to goodness and holiness, but it also differs because it requires works to establish it. This means that a righteous person must put effort into their acts instead of just speaking without doing. Righteousness is also God’s judgment. It must be fair to all and all acts from that justice given must be justifiable in God’s view.

Deuteronomy 32:4 The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he.

God being all-righteous can be proven by His works. Just like how the whole universe works systematically and how the seasons change periodically, everything in this world is under His perfect judgment.

Self-Dependent

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We need God but He does not need us. Instead, he wants us. God wants us to love Him and accept Him, for he made each of us with a reason and with love. We were created by His endless power. His being is complete without the need for anything else. His power is enough to create an abundance of everything. And because everything in Him is abundant,  He is the only one who can fulfill all our needs.

Jealous

Deuteronomy 4:24 For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.

One of the most visible characteristics of God in the bible is God’s jealousy, and it is especially shown in the Old Testament when He led the Israelites to the promised land (Exodus 34:14). Though jealousy today is seen as a negative thing, God’s jealousy is actually a positive virtue. It shows the meaning of our love relationship with Him. He longs for our attention and affection. So, He reacts strongly when they are directed to worldly items. When we worship other people and superficial things such as statues and images that we proclaim as divine, it is like admiring an art while discrediting the artist. Praising the creations rather than the Creator is both disrespectful and loathful.

Caring 

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Job 10:12 You have granted me life and steadfast love, and your care has preserved my spirit

Being a caring God, He takes care of everything about us. From the smallest detail of our day to the biggest turning point in our life. He makes sure that everything will work together for our good and well-being (Romans 8:28). In the bible in both Old Testament and New Testament, God shows his care for His people. He created us, gave Abraham all he needed to be the Father of Nations, remembered His people in Egypt, and sent His one and only begotten Son to die for our salvation. So, we should never feel that no one cares for us because He did, and He always will.

The 4 Omnis of God

Omni is a Latin word that means “everything” or “all”. Being omnipotent, God has power over everything that exists for He created them all. God is often described by the 4 omni’s we will discuss below.

God is Omnipotent/Omnificent

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2 Samuel 7:22 Therefore you are great, O Lord God. For there is none like you, and there is no God besides you, according to all that we have heard with our ears.

Nobody knows for sure how vast the entire universe is; the same way we can’t fathom God’s power. It is endless that knows no boundary. In the Book of Genesis,  we can read how powerful God is that He can make something out of nothing. We can see that all existence is from His power alone. According to John Piper, God made man small and the universe infinitely huge to make us realize how great is His power.

God is Omnipresent

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Joshua 1:9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.

One of the amazing characteristics of God is seeing everything. No one can hide from His eyes as it is everywhere, inside or outside of the Earth. This attribute of God can be related to His perfect judgment as no one can hide any sin or transgressions. In Jeremiah 23:24, God Himself said that no one can hide from His eyes and that nothing can be hidden before Him.

Psalm 145:18 The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.

Actions and words are not the only things that God can see. He can also look through our hearts and know our desires and thoughts. That’s is why the verse above said that He is always near to us as we can connect with Him through our heart and soul.

God is Omniscient

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James 1:5“If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you”

If there’s one characteristic of God that can be shared unto us, it is wisdom. As much as God can see and control everything, He also knows the inside and out of all His creations. The only one who can foretell the beginning and the end of everything is Him because He is the alpha and the omega, the time itself.

Isaiah 55:8- 9 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

How far the heavens are to the Earth? No one knows for sure. How about the number of stars? Or even the number of our hairs? Humans can’t even fully explain the things in front of them, how much more the things they can’t reach nor see? That is why trusting in the Wisdom of God is the wisest thing to do as no one knows anything for sure besides Him.

Things God Cannot Do

With God, all things are possible but there are things which are impossible for God to do. Scrutinizing the Bible, there are 2 things that God cannot do.

He Will Never Lie To Us

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Hebrews 6:18: “It is impossible for God to lie.”

It’s not that God will lie. It is that God can never lie because He is the truth. He is the source of everything that we consider real and perfect. Therefore, there is no other way of things than what He says.

Titus 1:2: “In hope of eternal life which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began.”

We can see from this verse that God was described as someone who cannot lie and will, therefore, fulfill His promise of eternal life. If God can fulfill the promise of unfathomable eternity, won’t He grants the good things He promised will come if we follow His words?

He Can Never Change

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 Malachi 3:6: “For I am the Lord, I do not change.”

Even if millions of centuries pass by, God’s word will always be relevant and never changing because of the author’s unchanging nature. In the Book of Genesis, it was declared that God is His word, implying that God is one with His words. His constant nature will allow us to keep our faith to His words because if He parted the ocean for His children back in the day, He still will now, for you and for me.

What Are The Two Characteristics of God Revealed by The Testimony of the Book of Job?

In the book of Job, we can see how Job was tested by God not just once but with a lot of trials in life. The book of Job mentioned how there was nothing like an upright and blameless man in the earth besides Job. But despite how holy he was, God allowed Satan to test him. Job lost everything. Satan took his livelihood and even killed all his children for the goal to make him curse God. Yet, he didn’t resent nor blamed God for it.

Here, the question would be, why did God allow all those bad things to happen to Job when all he did was obey God?

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Did God didn’t care about his welfare? Was all he cared about was his bet with Satan?

The answer is no. God loved Job that He showered him with blessings all throughout his life. God showed Job how loving He was and how pleased He was by his deeds.  But blessings are not everything in life. God wanted to test Job’s faith and not because Satan asked Him.  He wanted to know how strong Job and would he still love Him without the good things in life.

Things got worse, and even Job’s health was influenced by Satan. His faith wavered and he began to be resentful of everything, including God. He asked Him why those things happened when he’s innocent of any transgressions. God talked to him and showed him His understanding and comforting side by explaining to him the things He intends for His life. In the end, God doubled all the things he lost.

How We Can Experience the Characteristics of God

Getting through life requires a great deal of patience, courage, and faith. And for us to practice these three things, God gives us suffering. He lets us experience pain; not to punish us, but to mold our character to be the person he wants us to be. Trusting His plans for us will not only give us the strength to carry on and fight our battles. It will also solidify our faith in God because if we leave everything up to Him, we will start to ask for His guidance and constantly communicate to Him through prayer. Knowing all these characteristics of God will help us understand Him and His words as well.