We tend to minister out of life experiences. These experiences include our education, the latest books we’ve read, our spiritual mountaintops—when God’s hand was evident, as well as our valleys—when God seemed silent.

As these experiences accumulate during months and years, we form a picture of God that we display when our students present us with their questions, dilemmas and life issues. This picture can be healthy, as it shows our real and honest journeys with God. It also can be unhealthy—showing a picture of God that’s shaped more by our experiences and reactions to the experiences and less by who God actually is.

Here’s a little exercise. Based on your life circumstances and experiences, how would you complete this sentence today?
God is _____.

Now, how would you have completed that sentence one month ago? One year ago? Five years ago? I’ve found that words I might use from one life period to another can be contradictory (i.e., near and distant). It’s with this fluctuating picture of God that I minister, so it’s good to know we have more than our experiences to complete this sentence. We have God’s Word.

Scripture is packed with three-word phrases that start with “God is…” The next word is usually something that describes His immutable nature—God’s very essence.

Scripture Text
The apostle John, one of the most prolific writers of the New Testament, gave us some of the most famous “God is” phrases. As you read the passages below and see some of these phrases, take a moment to meditate on the essence of God that’s being expressed.

John 4:23-24: Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and His worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.

1 John 1:5: This is the message we have heard from Him and declare to you: God is light; in Him there is no darkness at all.

1 John 4:8: Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

Think About It
God is love. This is more than “God loves” or “God is loving.” God is love. He is the source of love. His very being is love. To be in His presence is to be in the presence of love.

God is light. This is more than “God is like or as light.” God is light. When He is present, there is no darkness. He is the solution to our darkness, the answer to the dimness of the world.

God is spirit. Because God is spirit, He delivers other elements of His essence (i.e., light and love) to our earthbound lives. He delivers light to our dark holes. He delivers love to our wounds of rejection.

Apply It
Our teens need to see our honest journeys with God and pictures of God: our questions, struggles, disappointments. They need to see us wrestle with the less flattering words we might use to complete the sentence “God is…” Let’s be sure they receive healthy doses of what God actually is. We don’t have to guess or theologize on this. We can listen to God tell us in His own words. He is love. He is light. He is spirit.

Our teens are forming their pictures of God. Encourage them to start with what God says He is. Their experiences will fill in the rest.