‘None Like Him’ – Key notes from the book by Jen Wilkin

I bet I can guess what you’re thinking; she must really like Jen Wilkin if this is the second book she’s blogged about, and you’re right. Well, based on the two books I’ve read, anyway. I still recommend you read In His Image, but None Like Him is good too. While In His Image is based on God’s character, it is the characteristics that we humans can work towards. On the other hand, None Like Him is about the traits we cannot ever hope to attain that makes Him different from us, which helps us understand how great our God is and why we can trust Him.

Like last time, I’ve divided it into chapters for easy reading. There may be some similarities to the previous post, but it’s all part of God’s character. Let’s dive in.

Introduction

There is none like God, He is one of a kind, and despite Him being our Creator and Father in Heaven, we don’t know Him as well as we should. We may not be able to know Him completely, for He is infinite, but we should at least know the essentials and an increasing number of people do not.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding (Proverbs 9:10).

Proverbs 9:10 teaches the path to truly knowing God, which is to fear Him. Not fear as in afraid but worshipful reverence and awe.

Ch 1 – Infinite

To recognise God for who He is, we first must accept that He has no limits, and we should not place any on Him simply because we cannot understand. He cannot be measured despite our efforts; we measure things to feel in control, but we cannot measure the one who controls everything. He has no rival or equal. We may have been created in His image, but we cannot hope to attain infinite knowledge such as He has or endless grace, for we are only human. Our limitations bring us closer to God and teach us to truly fear Him.

Ch 2 – Incomprehensible

We cannot fully know God. I think this is a good thing; maybe you’ve heard of the saying: ‘familiarity breeds contempt’. We see God as our Heavenly Father, but if we knew God like our earthly parents, we would not want to know Him; in fact, we’d probably run the other way, straight to hell. We would dismiss God without realising the impact it would have on our lives; unfortunately, many do exactly that today, and that’s without knowing Him at all. While we may not know God completely, we can know Him sufficiently through His Word, the Bible.

Ch 3 and 4 – Self-Existent and Self-Sufficient

We’ve already talked about God being infinite, but there’s more to it. He is also self-existent. He has no origin because He already existed. He needs nothing and is distinct from all He has created. He made us the ground beneath our feet and provided the food and water we eat. Everything we have we owe to Him; to worship anything other than God is idolatry.

He is created and sustained by none. We, on the other hand, need rest. As humans who listen to the lies our traitorous hearts tell us, we often try to be self-sufficient before crawling back to God humbled and apologetic. I’ll list below some of the traits of being self-sufficient.

Not praying
- Forgetfulness
- Anger in trial
- Lack of conviction of personal sin
- Avoidance of Christian community
- Concealment
- Lack of accountability
- Lack of humility
- Exhaustion

If this sounds like you, then you know what to do. I must admit I’ll be joining you because I’m guilty of trying to be self-sufficient. Let’s try and do better together.

Ch 5 – Eternal

“A queen is never late. Everyone else is simply early” – The Princess Diaries.

Change queen to king, and I think it’s pretty accurate. The Lord acts in His own time and not ours, which is good because otherwise, some things would never get finished.

Romans 8:28 tells us God will work everything for good, maybe not our good, but always His good, no matter how long it may take. Nothing on this earth is permanent, but God is. This is why He commands us to reclaim our time from pursuits that take us away from Him and instead spend time doing activities that will glorify Him. Let go of our worries that the past will catch up with us and the future will flee from our grasp and live fully in the present. There are reasons behind His command to live in the present. Nostalgia causes us to reflect on the past through rose-tinted lenses romanticising a reality that was never true. Regret, on the other hand, causes us to dwell on the wrong things we have done or that have been done to us and takes away the joy we ought to feel with God in our lives.

Ch 6 – Immutable

The Lord will never change, His promises are always kept, and His faithfulness is unmatched.

Ch 7 – Omnipresent

God is everywhere and distinct at the same time. He is always there even when we cannot feel His presence. He is uncontainable. He sees all and knows all. Even when we try and hide from Him and convince ourselves that He doesn’t know about whatever sinful thought we had or deed we have tried to forget about, He knows.

Ch 8 – Omniscient

God may be uncontainable, but so is His knowledge. His knowledge is vaster than all the stars in the sky. We cannot outsmart Him or try to bargain with Him. He knows all, and He never forgets. Unlike God, we cannot know all things. When we try, we fry our brains and become tired and irritable or at least I do. We believe that knowledge will bring us peace, but this is a lie because, more often than not, it just gets pain.

Ch 9 – Omnipotent

He is all-powerful because He created everything, but in His wisdom, He has delegated responsibility to His children to care for the planet and all within it. This responsibility was placed upon us from the beginning when the Lord told Adam to work and take care of the garden of Eden (Genesis 2:15) and all that was in it. Not long after God gave that instruction, Adam and Eve committed the first sinful act that would impact the world until the end of time. Since then, humanity has become twisted, and every action can be used for good or evil, even without intending to.

We all have different strengths and weaknesses. Unfortunately, our strength can become a weakness when wielded for the wrong reasons. Our strengths can be used to serve, but they are often used to make ourselves feel better and build our egos. Those with the gift of words and speech can use it to motivate or manipulate. Physically strong people can use it to protect, save or cause hurt. Intelligent people can use their brains for good to find ways to help people and cure illness and disease. Or they can seek to control and look down upon those who are not superior or equal in intelligence. God gave us free will so we could choose and use what He gave us for good or abuse it selfishly.

Ch 10 – Sovereign

God is our King, not just the King of Heaven but also Earth. This can be hard to grasp because we have earthly kings, too, but consider God the High King above all. When we know who God is, trusting Him to rule over us is easier because we know He is fully qualified. He is the perfect King. Just looking at His characteristics qualifies Him to lead for eternity, not just because He is eternal. It would be a miracle if you could have an earthly leader with even half God’s qualities. Even Solomon, considered one of the wisest kings, cannot compare.

Conclusion

God sees all and knows all. We cannot hide from the one who created us. We should desire a relationship with God and spend the rest of our lives studying the scriptures and learning how to live a faith-filled life.

Now that you know more about who God is, I hope you can trust Him more. Or perhaps this was just a reminder of how amazing our God is, and in that case, I hope that little ember of faith within you sparks a flame. Until next time…