GraceLife Thoughts – Nature/Nurture

Grace Thoughts

GraceLife Thoughts – Nature/Nurture

I believe that many Christians are confused by God’s Nature and His Nurture. By that, I mean the eternal Nature of God and the way God temporarily nurtures His creatures. God’s Word reveals that God’s Nature is settled. It is permanent and unchanging. God is who He is and has always been.

God is Self-Existent. The power of His existence, His Being, is in Himself. God is Self-Sufficient. He depends on no one for His existence. God depends on nothing for His existence. God is Self-Existent and Self-Sufficient. God is Eternal. He has no beginning or ending. He always was and will always be. That is His Nature.

God “nurtures” because He is “relational.” God is Relational. He created human beings so He could have a relationship with them. God is Creator and Father. Creator comes from His Nature. Father comes from His Nurture. Fathering is how He nurtures what He created. God relates to humans as “Father.”

The Nature of God must be first in our understanding of God. His Nature is eternal and unchanging. God will never “nurture” in a way that is inconsistent with His “nature.” If we look first at the “nurture” of God to a fallen creation rather than in light of His “nature,” we will misunderstand much of what goes on in the Bible. God “nurtures” His creatures based on His “nature.” That’s basic to “rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15).