One of the more painful aspects of moving overseas was the parting away from the books I had collected. Due to spacing issues, we could only bring what was deemed most important and needed. Because of this, a lot of good books got left behind or given away. One particular book that was painfully left behind was Maurice Roberts’s book The Thought of God. This was a book that really impacted me while in seminary as it proved to be both a theological and pastoral treasure chest for my heart.
In my mind, I kept thinking that they’ll come out a Kindle version and once it did, I would snap it up. Yeah, well…I’m still thinking about that Kindle version and it still hasn’t come out yet. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
So while I’m here, I took the opportunity to re-purchase this book. Definitely not planning to go back overseas without this book. And in reading the first chapter, I was encouraged once more to strive to have a bigger view of who God is. Below are just some quotes from the first chapter. I hope this will be an encouragement to you:
The thought of God should be the Christian’s panacea. It should cure all his ills at a stroke. And what an infinity there is in the thought of God! Nothing can approach in beauty to the idea of the true and living God. That there exists a Being who is infinite in power, knowledge, and goodness, that the Being cares for me with a perfect love as though I were the only man in existence, that he loved me before I was born and created me to enjoy him eternally and that he sent his Son to suffer the agony of the cross to secure my eternal happiness- that, surely, must be a thought to end all sorrow. It ought to be and often is.
Maurice Roberts, The Thought of God, Pg. 5
Our perceptions of God suffer more than our perceptions of natural things because we are depraved and do not make it our life’s work daily to entice our idea of God from the fountainhead of Scripture. It is our folly that we allow ourselves to look at life’s problems as if they were somehow isolated from God. As soon as we see our problems in the light of God’s Being and perfection, we are emancipated from alarm and terror.
MAURICE ROBERTS, THE THOUGHT OF GOD, PG. 5
It must follow from what has been said that the degree of a Christian’s peace of mind depends upon his spiritual ability to interpose the thought of God between himself and his anxiety. When the dark cloud of trouble first looms up on the horizon of our thought, then is the time to apply our theology in downright earnest.
MAURICE ROBERTS, THE THOUGHT OF GOD, PG. 7