The accuracy of your model of God is a measure of the similarity between what you believe he would think, feel, and do, and how he would actually think, feel, and do.
The accuracy of your model of God is measured by how frequently you are proven incorrect in your beliefs about God, and by how much it matters. Error in more important things will matter more than equal error in less important things.2 Error in your model can be revealed by new things you learn about God, negative outcomes you face as a result of following your present ideas about him,3 and sufficient arguments about him provided by those who know him better than you.
Every time you are surprised by someone you thought you knew, you reveal the limits of your model of their character. Each time someone surprises you in what they do, why they do it, and how they
feel in doing so, it indicates a new way you can increase your familiarity with them. Even when you know a person very well, and even when that person isn’t very deep, you can still be surprised when their behavior in some new or even familiar situation strongly deviates from your well-informed expectation. You can accurately predict the thoughts, feelings, and actions of normal people after getting to know them very little. Accurately predicting God requires knowing him very well. Until then, he will continuously surprise you. The apostles spent three years with the Lord, and yet they were frequently surprised by his behavior.4
God corrects our errors by precept and experience. He exposes us to people who know better than we do as long as such people exist, and when we refuse them or surpass them, sends us experiences that expose us to the consequences of our inadequate beliefs in order to motivate us to search for and empower us to identify them.
Your understanding of God’s character is not static. It can and should improve over time. You must come to believe the being, no matter the particulars. All disciples of Christ believe that God is the epitome of good, that all he does is the best that can be done, that he knows everything, that he loves you more than you love yourself, and that every aspect of your life is precisely oriented toward your greatest benefit. However, your belief of how these qualities translate into specific actions can and should change in significant ways over time. Don’t be surprised when your previously held beliefs are proven to be false. Constraining improvements of your model of Christ’s character to what you already believe about him will significantly limit what the Lord can teach you about himself. The more tenaciously you cling to contradicted beliefs, the more your future mistakes will resemble those you’ve made in the past.
Some are driven in their unwillingness to change their beliefs by the misguided idea that clinging to refuted beliefs about God is a measure of your fidelity to him. True trust in God lies in how he actually is, not in the limited particulars of your estimate of how you thought he was. The key goal in this process is to develop you to the point where you achieve maximal teachability while preserving maximal trust in God. A willingness to let go of what you previously believed about him is not just a part of exercising trust in God, but a non-negotiable piece of building greater trust in him. Those who trust God the most are the most willing to change their minds when he corrects them.1068 You have arrived at this goal when you reach the point where God can easily and instantly modify your views of reality, good, evil, and himself without negatively affecting your absolute reliance upon and trust in him.
The need to remain pliable in response to God’s ongoing instruction is not an excuse for irregular obedience to how you believe God to be. You have to develop a model of God’s character and steadfastly follow it, even while being completely pliable to correction of that model at all times and in all places. When you fail to advance your model, or fail to update your life in response to those updates, you deviate from the ideal given your present understanding; you cease to optimally advance towards God, as far as you know him; you fail to precisely reflect your sincere understanding of how he is given your present understanding, you fail to walk in the experiences he has ordained to render to you the greatest blessing and fullest future improvement, and you fail to demonstrate him to others as far as you are able.
Footnotes
- 1. Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever. (Hebrews 13:8) ↩
- 2. “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.” (Matthew 23:23) On several occasions, the apostles’ estimates of the Lord’s will were so dramatically incorrect that he rebuked them sharply: “But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.” (Matthew 16:23) “And when his disciples James and John saw [the Samaritans reject him], they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did? But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. For the Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them. And they went to another village.” (Luke 9:54-56 ↩
- 3. Experiences that violate God’s promises to the faithful indicate insufficient beliefs about God. For example, while unpleasant, difficult, or downright painful experiences do not indicate insufficient beliefs about God, lack of sufficiency in mental, emotional, or spiritual well-being do. When life overcomes you, it shows that your beliefs about God are insufficient. ↩
- 4. For example, they were surprised both by his death and his resurrection: “And their words seemed to them as idle tales, and they believed them not.” (Luke 24:11) “But they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit. And he said unto them, Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts? Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have. And when he had thus spoken, he shewed them his hands and his feet.” (Luke 24:37-40) ↩