A Devotional on Knowing God’s True Character
Have you ever been in a conversation where someone completely misunderstood who you are? Maybe they made assumptions based on rumors, first impressions, or past experiences with others. It’s frustrating, isn’t it? Now imagine being God—perfectly loving, infinitely wise, completely good—and having your own children misunderstand your heart toward them.
In our digital age, we’re used to people “sliding into our DMs” or “entering the chat” unexpectedly. But God has been trying to enter our conversation all along, saying, “Hey, do you really know Me?” Too often, our view of God is shaped more by our circumstances, our disappointments, or even well-meaning but misguided religious teaching than by who He actually reveals Himself to be in Scripture.
The following six words have the power to revolutionize how we perceive God—not as a distant, harsh judge, but as the loving Father who yearns for us to know His true heart.
1. COMPASSIONATE
“The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.” — Psalm 145:8 (ESV)
When life hits hard, our first instinct often isn’t to run toward God but away from Him. We wonder, “Where was He when I needed Him?” or “Why didn’t He prevent this?” But what if our understanding of God’s heart is fundamentally off?
The Hebrew word for “gracious” here is chanun, which carries the idea of bending down to help someone in need. Picture a parent stooping to help a fallen child—that’s God’s posture toward you. He’s not standing over you with arms crossed, tapping His foot impatiently. He’s kneeling beside you, ready to lift you up.
Compassion isn’t just something God occasionally shows; it’s who He is. When the Psalmist says He’s “slow to anger,” the Hebrew literally means “long of nostrils”—like someone taking deep, patient breaths instead of flying off the handle. God’s default mode isn’t anger; it’s love that looks for every reason to show mercy.
Today’s Truth: God’s compassion toward you isn’t earned or deserved—it flows from His very nature. You don’t have to clean up your act on your own to experience it.
2. PRESENT
“And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” — Matthew 28:20 (ESV)
One of the most damaging lies we believe about God is that He’s absent when we need Him most. We feel abandoned in our struggles and assume that means He’s busy with more important things. But Jesus’ promise here isn’t conditional—He doesn’t say, “I’ll be with you when you’re good enough” or “I’ll stick around as long as you don’t mess up too badly.”
The Greek word for “with” is meta, which means “in the midst of” or “alongside.” It’s not the presence of someone watching from a distance, but of someone right there in the mess with you. Think about that friend who doesn’t just text you during hard times but shows up at your door with coffee and sits with you in silence when words aren’t enough.
This isn’t just a nice sentiment Jesus threw out before ascending to heaven. It’s a promise backed by the very character of God. In the Old Testament, one of God’s names is Immanuel—“God with us.” His presence isn’t a reward for good behavior; it’s the foundation of our relationship with Him.
Today’s Truth: God hasn’t left the building. He’s not scrolling past your prayers like social media posts. He’s present in your ordinary Wednesday just as much as He was at the moment of your salvation.
3. PATIENT
“But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.” — Psalm 86:15 (ESV)
If God kept a record of every time we disappointed Him, every time we chose our way over His, every time we forgot about Him until we needed something—well, we’d all be in trouble. But David reminds us of something revolutionary: God is “slow to anger.”
This doesn’t mean God is indifferent to sin or that He doesn’t care about right and wrong. Rather, His patience reveals His heart. Like a master gardener who knows that growth takes time, God understands our process. He’s not surprised by our failures or shocked by our struggles.
The phrase “abounding in steadfast love” uses the Hebrew word chesed, which refers to covenant love—the kind of commitment that doesn’t depend on performance. It’s the complete opposite of the horrible parent who responds to every failure with “You never do anything right.” God’s love doesn’t say, “I’ll love you if…” but rather, “I’ll love you, period.” This love doesn’t run out when we mess up for the hundredth time.
Maybe you’ve heard those crushing words before—that voice that keeps score of your failures and seems to forget your successes. But God’s patience isn’t like that critical voice at all. It’s not just tolerance; it’s active love that keeps believing in who you’re becoming, even when you can’t see it yourself. Where human love often fails and gives up, God’s love perseveres and sees potential.
Today’s Truth: God’s patience with you isn’t running thin. His timer isn’t counting down to the moment He finally gives up on you. His love has staying power.
4. FAITHFUL
“If we are faithless, he remains faithful—for he cannot deny himself.” — 2 Timothy 2:13 (ESV)
Here’s where the Gospel gets really good news-y. Paul doesn’t say, “If we are faithless, we’re toast.” He says something that should make us weep with relief: even when we’re faithless, God remains faithful. Not because we deserve it, but because faithfulness is so core to who He is that He literally cannot be otherwise.
This verse is like discovering that your friend’s loyalty to you doesn’t depend on your loyalty to them. It’s finding out that someone’s commitment to you is so solid that your wavering doesn’t shake it. God’s faithfulness isn’t a reaction to our faithfulness; it’s a revelation of His character.
We live in a world where relationships often feel conditional, where love seems to have fine print. But God’s faithfulness is different. It’s not a contract with terms and conditions; it’s a covenant with an unchanging God. When you’re faithful, He’s faithful. When you’re faithless, He’s still faithful. When you don’t even know what faithful looks like anymore, He remains faithful.
This doesn’t give us license to sin—quite the opposite. It gives us confidence to approach God honestly, knowing that our relationship with Him isn’t built on our performance but on His unchanging nature.
Today’s Truth: God’s faithfulness to you doesn’t fluctuate with your faithfulness to Him. His commitment is not a mirror of yours; it’s the foundation beneath yours.
5. FORGIVING
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” — 1 John 1:9 (ESV)
The word “if” in this verse isn’t about meeting conditions to earn forgiveness—it’s about the pathway to experiencing what’s already available. God’s forgiveness isn’t something He reluctantly offers after we grovel enough; it’s something He’s eager to give the moment we’re honest about our need for it.
Notice what John doesn’t say. He doesn’t say God is “merciful and kind” to forgive us—though He is both. He says God is “faithful and just.” This means forgiveness isn’t just a nice thing God does when He’s feeling generous; it’s what justice demands because Jesus already paid for our sins. God would be unfaithful to His own promises and unjust to Jesus’ sacrifice if He didn’t forgive us when we confess.
The word “confess” here means “to say the same thing”—to agree with God about our sin instead of making excuses or minimizing it. But here’s what’s beautiful: the moment we’re honest about our failure, we discover that God’s forgiveness was already waiting for us.
Today’s Truth: God isn’t keeping a scorecard of your failures, waiting for you to balance it out with good behavior. Confession isn’t about convincing God to forgive you; it’s about receiving what He’s already freely offering.
6. GOOD
“Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!” — Psalm 34:8 (ESV)
This might be the most radical word of all. In a world full of suffering, disappointment, and unanswered prayers, declaring that God is good can feel naive or even offensive. But the Psalmist isn’t asking us to take his word for it—he’s inviting us to “taste and see.”
The Hebrew word for “good” here is tov, the same word used in Genesis when God looked at His creation and declared it “good.” It’s not just the absence of bad things; it’s the presence of everything that promotes flourishing, wholeness, and life. When we say God is good, we’re not saying He gives us everything we want—we’re saying that everything He does flows from a heart that wants our ultimate well-being.
“Taste and see” suggests that God’s goodness is experiential, not just theoretical. It’s something we discover not by analyzing His actions from a distance but by drawing near to Him, especially in the hard places. Sometimes God’s goodness looks different from what we expected, but it’s no less real.
The invitation to “take refuge in him” pictures someone finding shelter in a storm. God’s goodness isn’t just a nice attribute to study; it’s a safe place to hide when life doesn’t make sense.
Today’s Truth: God’s goodness isn’t dependent on your circumstances. Even when life is hard, His heart toward you is good, His plans for you are good, and His love for you is unshakably good.
God Has Entered the Chat
So here’s the question that matters: Do you really know Him? Not the version of God you’ve constructed from your disappointments, your religious upbringing, or your fears—but the God who reveals Himself as compassionate, present, patient, faithful, forgiving, and good?
God isn’t trying to hide from you. He’s not playing hard to get or waiting for you to figure out the right combination of words and works to earn His approval. He’s entered the chat of your life, sending message after message through His Word, His Spirit, and His people, saying, “This is who I really am. This is how I really feel about you.”
The God who created you, who knit you together in your mother’s womb, who knows every hair on your head and every tear you’ve cried—He’s not your enemy. He’s not your reluctant ally. He’s your loving Father, and He’s been trying to tell you that all along.
Maybe it’s time to let Him introduce Himself to you all over again.
Romans 8:38-39
“For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Jeremiah 31:3
“The Lord appeared to him from far away. I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.”
Zephaniah 3:17
“The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.”
Lamentations 3:22-23
“The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”
Prayer: Father, forgive me for the ways I’ve misunderstood Your heart toward me. Help me to see You not through the lens of my circumstances or my fears, but through the truth of Your Word. Show me who You really are, and help me to trust that Your heart toward me is always good. Amen.
A good reminder after going through personal battles! Thanks!