Rev Hooker Bible Study on Unselfish PrayerSession 1 Moments of Truth Ps 32

We talk about divine attributes in human phys- ical terms because it is a shorthand way of trying to describe some aspect of the indescribable. Many people realize that a reference to the voice of God, for example, is not an audible voice like the voice of human beings. God’s voice, except as it may be spo- ken through those persons closely enough attuned to divine realities to be able to speak them, is inaudible. Nonetheless, we may often use the word voice to describe the powerful pulling and leading of God’s Spirit (God’s unseen presence). Frankly, we may not always hear God’s voice any more clearly than we hear a friend or loved one when she or he attempts to say something to us while we’re engrossed in a televi- sion show or a good book. Similarly, when we give God human emotional attributes, we must realize that God is not of limited human capacity and that God does not feel as humans feel. When we say that God loves or that God is angry, we are drawing parallels to human experience. God’s love, of course, is infinitely more than the greatest acts of human love. God’s anger is based on perceptions of God that make God act and react like human beings as well as a way of trying to account for life’s difficulties with a providentialist perspective. We should understand that God is not subject to the limitations of human emotional experience in any way.