Weekly Devotional: Who Is God?
from the September 6, 2026 message: Who Is God?
Speaker: Pastor Timmy Rotter
Day 1: The God Who Can Be Known
Reading: Colossians 2:1-10
Paul writes of his deep longing for believers to have full confidence in understanding God's mysterious plan, revealed through Christ, in whom all treasures of wisdom and knowledge are found.
Devotional:
It is tempting to settle for a vague, half-formed idea of God -- a distant figure who either condemns or simply approves of whatever we choose. But Paul agonized over believers having something far better: complete confidence in a God who is not hidden. The mystery of who God is has been answered in the person of Jesus Christ. You do not have to guess. You do not have to inherit someone else's distorted picture. The God of the universe has made himself knowable. The question is not whether he can be found -- it is whether you are willing to look honestly at who he actually is, not who you have assumed him to be.
Reflection:
What assumptions about God have you carried for years without examining them? Ask God today to reveal where your picture of him may be incomplete or distorted.
Practical Application:
Write down three words you would use to describe God right now. Over the next five days, hold those words up against what Scripture actually says and be willing to revise them.
Day 2: The Danger of a Partial View
Reading: Luke 9:51-56
As Jesus set his face toward Jerusalem, his disciples James and John, angered by a Samaritan village's rejection, asked whether they should call fire down from heaven. Jesus rebuked them.
Devotional:
James and John had walked with Jesus for years. They had witnessed miracles, heard his teachings, and been chosen as part of his inner circle. And yet, in a moment of conflict, their view of God defaulted to wrath and destruction. They had absorbed one dimension of God's character while missing the whole. This is a sobering warning. Time spent near God does not automatically produce an accurate understanding of him. It is possible to be deeply religious and still carry a dangerously incomplete picture. A partial view of God will always produce a distorted response to the people around you.
Reflection:
Have you ever responded to someone with judgment or harshness and justified it with your understanding of God? What does that reveal about how you actually see him?
Practical Application:
Identify one relationship in your life where a skewed view of God may be shaping how you treat that person. Bring it before God in honest prayer today.
Day 3: The Word Behind Everything
Reading: John 1:1-14
John opens his gospel by declaring that the Word -- the logos -- existed from the beginning, was with God, was God, and became flesh and dwelt among humanity.
Devotional:
Greek philosophers spent centuries debating the logos -- the reason or logic behind all of existence. John steps into that conversation and makes a stunning claim: the answer is not an idea or a system. It is a person. Jesus is the logos. He is the reason behind everything. He is not one religious option among many. He is the one in whom all of reality holds together. This means that knowing Jesus is not merely a spiritual exercise -- it is the most intellectually honest and rationally grounded pursuit a human being can undertake. Truth is not relative. Truth has a name, and that name is Jesus.
Reflection:
In what areas of your life are you still operating as though truth is whatever you decide it to be? How does the reality of Jesus as the logos challenge that?
Practical Application:
Read a short passage from one of the four Gospels today with fresh eyes, as though encountering Jesus for the very first time. Note one thing that surprises or challenges you.
Day 4: The God Who Gives Everything
Reading: Romans 5:6-11
Paul describes how, while humanity was still weak, still sinful, and still enemies of God, Christ died for them -- demonstrating a love that surpasses all human expectation or merit.
Devotional:
The idea of a loving God does not come naturally to human beings. Ancient religions were built on fear -- people offering sacrifices, even their own children, hoping to earn favor from gods who were unpredictable and terrifying. The God of the Bible is something else entirely. He did not wait for humanity to clean itself up. He did not demand that you earn your way to him. While you were still far off, still an enemy, he gave his Son. This is not a God who wags his finger at you from a distance. This is a God who crossed every distance to reach you. That changes everything about how you live.
Reflection:
Do you functionally believe that God's love toward you is conditional -- that it rises and falls based on your performance? Where did that belief come from, and does Scripture support it?
Practical Application:
Memorize or meditate on Romans 5:8 today. Let it serve as a direct challenge to any lingering belief that you must earn God's acceptance.
Day 5: Seeing the Whole Picture
Reading: Ephesians 3:14-21
Paul prays that believers would be rooted and grounded in love, able to comprehend the full dimensions of Christ's love, and filled with all the fullness of God.
Devotional:
God is Father, Friend, Savior, and King. He is not one of these things to the exclusion of the others. He is all of them, fully and simultaneously. Paul's prayer in Ephesians is not that believers would know one aspect of God deeply -- it is that they would grasp the full dimensions of who he is. Width, length, height, and depth. This is the invitation of a lifetime. Not a tidy, manageable version of God that fits inside your comfort zone, but the full, living, multifaceted God of Scripture. When you see him rightly, you are changed. Your relationships change. Your fears change. Your purpose changes. The most important thing about you is what you think about God. Make sure you are seeing all of him.
Reflection:
Which aspect of God -- Father, Friend, Savior, or King -- do you most naturally gravitate toward? Which do you most resist? What does that resistance reveal?
Practical Application:
Choose one attribute of God that feels unfamiliar or uncomfortable to you. Spend time this week reading what Scripture says about that attribute specifically, and ask God to make it real to you -- not just as a doctrine, but as a living truth.
Speaker: Pastor Timmy Rotter
Day 1: The God Who Can Be Known
Reading: Colossians 2:1-10
Paul writes of his deep longing for believers to have full confidence in understanding God's mysterious plan, revealed through Christ, in whom all treasures of wisdom and knowledge are found.
Devotional:
It is tempting to settle for a vague, half-formed idea of God -- a distant figure who either condemns or simply approves of whatever we choose. But Paul agonized over believers having something far better: complete confidence in a God who is not hidden. The mystery of who God is has been answered in the person of Jesus Christ. You do not have to guess. You do not have to inherit someone else's distorted picture. The God of the universe has made himself knowable. The question is not whether he can be found -- it is whether you are willing to look honestly at who he actually is, not who you have assumed him to be.
Reflection:
What assumptions about God have you carried for years without examining them? Ask God today to reveal where your picture of him may be incomplete or distorted.
Practical Application:
Write down three words you would use to describe God right now. Over the next five days, hold those words up against what Scripture actually says and be willing to revise them.
Day 2: The Danger of a Partial View
Reading: Luke 9:51-56
As Jesus set his face toward Jerusalem, his disciples James and John, angered by a Samaritan village's rejection, asked whether they should call fire down from heaven. Jesus rebuked them.
Devotional:
James and John had walked with Jesus for years. They had witnessed miracles, heard his teachings, and been chosen as part of his inner circle. And yet, in a moment of conflict, their view of God defaulted to wrath and destruction. They had absorbed one dimension of God's character while missing the whole. This is a sobering warning. Time spent near God does not automatically produce an accurate understanding of him. It is possible to be deeply religious and still carry a dangerously incomplete picture. A partial view of God will always produce a distorted response to the people around you.
Reflection:
Have you ever responded to someone with judgment or harshness and justified it with your understanding of God? What does that reveal about how you actually see him?
Practical Application:
Identify one relationship in your life where a skewed view of God may be shaping how you treat that person. Bring it before God in honest prayer today.
Day 3: The Word Behind Everything
Reading: John 1:1-14
John opens his gospel by declaring that the Word -- the logos -- existed from the beginning, was with God, was God, and became flesh and dwelt among humanity.
Devotional:
Greek philosophers spent centuries debating the logos -- the reason or logic behind all of existence. John steps into that conversation and makes a stunning claim: the answer is not an idea or a system. It is a person. Jesus is the logos. He is the reason behind everything. He is not one religious option among many. He is the one in whom all of reality holds together. This means that knowing Jesus is not merely a spiritual exercise -- it is the most intellectually honest and rationally grounded pursuit a human being can undertake. Truth is not relative. Truth has a name, and that name is Jesus.
Reflection:
In what areas of your life are you still operating as though truth is whatever you decide it to be? How does the reality of Jesus as the logos challenge that?
Practical Application:
Read a short passage from one of the four Gospels today with fresh eyes, as though encountering Jesus for the very first time. Note one thing that surprises or challenges you.
Day 4: The God Who Gives Everything
Reading: Romans 5:6-11
Paul describes how, while humanity was still weak, still sinful, and still enemies of God, Christ died for them -- demonstrating a love that surpasses all human expectation or merit.
Devotional:
The idea of a loving God does not come naturally to human beings. Ancient religions were built on fear -- people offering sacrifices, even their own children, hoping to earn favor from gods who were unpredictable and terrifying. The God of the Bible is something else entirely. He did not wait for humanity to clean itself up. He did not demand that you earn your way to him. While you were still far off, still an enemy, he gave his Son. This is not a God who wags his finger at you from a distance. This is a God who crossed every distance to reach you. That changes everything about how you live.
Reflection:
Do you functionally believe that God's love toward you is conditional -- that it rises and falls based on your performance? Where did that belief come from, and does Scripture support it?
Practical Application:
Memorize or meditate on Romans 5:8 today. Let it serve as a direct challenge to any lingering belief that you must earn God's acceptance.
Day 5: Seeing the Whole Picture
Reading: Ephesians 3:14-21
Paul prays that believers would be rooted and grounded in love, able to comprehend the full dimensions of Christ's love, and filled with all the fullness of God.
Devotional:
God is Father, Friend, Savior, and King. He is not one of these things to the exclusion of the others. He is all of them, fully and simultaneously. Paul's prayer in Ephesians is not that believers would know one aspect of God deeply -- it is that they would grasp the full dimensions of who he is. Width, length, height, and depth. This is the invitation of a lifetime. Not a tidy, manageable version of God that fits inside your comfort zone, but the full, living, multifaceted God of Scripture. When you see him rightly, you are changed. Your relationships change. Your fears change. Your purpose changes. The most important thing about you is what you think about God. Make sure you are seeing all of him.
Reflection:
Which aspect of God -- Father, Friend, Savior, or King -- do you most naturally gravitate toward? Which do you most resist? What does that resistance reveal?
Practical Application:
Choose one attribute of God that feels unfamiliar or uncomfortable to you. Spend time this week reading what Scripture says about that attribute specifically, and ask God to make it real to you -- not just as a doctrine, but as a living truth.