A Relative God?

This is an interesting question, Tim. I don't think that God is "relative" per se, but we all have a slightly different perspective on him.

Men and women read the bible differently. For example, when a man read the story of David's adultery, he relates with David's lust. Women see the story, not incorrectly, but differently. They see manipulation, decietfulness, and scandal at the forfront of the story.

Tim, the comment above from Pressed touches on what I wanted to toss into the ring. A few years ago as we sailed through some stormy marital seas, I rather militantly looked to Jesus as the One Man who would never let me down. My overall view of God was probably very similar to what you describe as that presented in Christian women's literature. But as my thinking and faith have become more "God-centered" and less "human-centered" that kind of thinking has gone away. I now appreciate the differences in my husband and I, in this life we live on earth, more than ever. But as we approach God, we do so as neither male nor female, Jew or Greek...(Gal.3:8) So I would say that my former way of thinking about God was based on my immaturity in spiritual things.

God is greater than we can see or even imagine, so its no wonder that we can see Him differently at times. Even the best of us (of which I am surely not a part) are but spiritually blind in comparison, and so like the blind men and the elephant, we grope around in our attempts to find God and often perceive only parts of His awesome greatness.

The title of this thread is almost correct and the answer to the question. I would have posed the question this way: "A relative, God". Meaning we are actually a relative and not to far removed. The lineage is God- Man- Woman. We are all related. Take a look at your Father and see how he was your God as a child and taught you how to have reverence for a God if in fact he played his role as he "should have". Unfortunately most fathers are either a coward or a bully and in either case Mother turned you against him and in a "relative" term against God.The root of most of your mental torment and suffering lies in childhood self-doubt.Resentment towards your father's failing is no doubt behind the vicious cycle of worry affecting your health. If your father fails you then you may also think that God has failed you.Spiritually speaking, the father you can see represents the Father you cannot see. Dadhas a very heavy responsibility as a heavenly bureaucrat. The faith in his indwellinggoodness ought to be a positive influence, a roundabout way of confirming the faith inwhat you were born to believe. Resenting your father always negatively impacts that faith,severing the connection from the unfolding inner heavenly nature. “Doubting oneself,” isthe term we use to describe this life-changing traumatic event.This struggle between faith and doubt is perpetuated your entire life through rebellion against authority, or, through trusting, putting too much faith in others, hence setting up a special someone to save you. Eventually, resentment toward their emerging faultsreinforces the old self-doubt that came from resenting your dad. Resentment in the present towards all those “father’s” you can see, continues to separate you from the Father within that you cannot see. That is what your anxiety and despair is all about.There are two reasons for the perpetuation of self-doubt, one that springs from the other.The first one is resentment toward look-alike people, places, and things, especially lookalikefather figures. The second reason is trusting in another person to save you. This iswhat leads back again to resentment and despair, because, as you must know by now,they will always fail.The problems that rise from doubt are extremely complex and dangerous. Fortunately, thecure, if you can grasp it, is extremely simple: forgive your father. You achieve forgivingyour father and retrieving faith in God through dropping resentment towards those parentsubstitutes in the present. Therefore, stop placing your hope for salvation in anyone,because that guarantees cruel disappointments.Giving up resentment is also pivotal to letting go of past judgments, including thejudgment upon your judgment of others that turns into self-judgments. You call it being toohard on yourself.When you doubted your self as a child, you became wrong and that wrong is ashamedand loath to admit it is wrong. You want so badly to be right. Well-meaning people, who help build your confidence, only cause more self-doubt, because they are helping you believe in a self that went wrong.Once upon a time when you believed the lying accusations that you were stupid andcrazy, when you really were not, that is when the confusion was planted. Now, when people ridicule or support you they only compound that original confusion.What follows you now is a conscience that says there is something wrong, but you do not want to listen, because you want to be right so badly. Fortunately, your conscience is not the enemy... it only wants you to awaken.Because you connect doubting to losing faith and causing everything to go wrong in yourlife, doubt has become a bad word, for which reason you are afraid to doubt a second time. However, you do need to doubt again, this time to believe that you are wrong, simply because it is the truth that will set you free.