As we finish our series on the attributes of God, we come to a central truth: the one God exists eternally in three persons, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The doctrine of the Trinity challenges our minds but it can also bring awe and joy to our hearts. Because he is triune, God is overflowing with love, life, and goodness. This means reality is about love, not power, and that Christianity is ultimately an invitation into the love and glory God has in himself. 

Application Questions: 

1. What is your experience with the doctrine of the Trinity? How have you thought about it in the past?

2. What difference does it make that God is triune? 

3. How can you enjoy the triune God in prayer, Bible reading, and more this week? 

God's faithfulness is directly related to His promise-making and promise-keeping. He voluntarily limits Himself by making covenants with His people. These covenants define the relationship His people have with Him, and they show that He is a God who makes glorious promises, and keeps those promises. We can have confidence that He will keep His promises because of the blood of Jesus.

Application Questions: 

1. What is a "covenant" and why does it matter for how we relate to God?

2. How is it shocking that the eternal, infinite God of the universe makes promises to His people?

3. Why are the promises of God essential for your life?

4. How does the New Covenant in the blood of Jesus give you confidence that God will always keep His promises?

5. How can the promises of God anchor your soul this week?

Just as God is holy, good, and loving, God is just. His righteous character means he brooks no evil, shows no partiality, and overlooks no injustice. Peter tells us that one day God's justice will come to cleanse the earth and expose our deeds. And yet he says that judgment day can be a day to look forward to! We all long for justice, and yet can't face it ourselves without being consumed. But in Christ we see the judge who came to be judged for us, so we can make it through judgement day to a renewed heaven and earth with him.

Application Questions: 

1. How do you respond to the idea that God is just? What questions or reactions do you have? 

2. Why do some people find God's justice a reason for hope? 

3. How does Christ allow us to long for judgment day instead of recoil in fear? 

4. How might God's justice change the way you react to the circumstances in your life now? 

"Good" is such a mediocre word, we can often misunderstand what it means that God is good. But when we open our Bibles and consider God's goodness we see that all the beautiful aspects of his character flow from it. It's not just that God is good. Our greatest joy and only hope are in the fact that is perfect goodness.

Application Questions: 

1. How do you tend to define "goodness"? Is it rooted in God or your own ideas?

2. What are some big moments in life in which you have seen God's goodness/kindness?

3. What are some small moments in life in which you have seen God's goodness/kindness?

4. What are some ways you have seen God's goodness/kindness in creation?

5. How does the gospel prove the perfect nature of God's goodness?

6. What are a few ways you would treat others differently if you were more consistently living out God's goodness toward them?

If you had to pick one word to describe God, the Bible would tell you to use the word "holy." God's holiness is a way of talking about the all the things that set him apart. God's holiness means his power, goodness, and love, are a purer, richer, and deeper than any other. Isaiah encounters God's holiness and finds himself transformed. By looking at Isaiah's experience, we learn what it means to encounter God ourselves. 

Application Questions: 

1. The word "holiness" means different things to different people. How have you understood the idea of holiness in the past? 

2. Have you ever felt overwhelmed and undone by God's holiness? What led to those experiences? How did you respond to them? 

3. How do you understand the relationship between God's holiness and God's mercy? 

4. What about God's holiness makes you holy? Have you seen that at work in your own life? 

God speaks and the universe is created. His Word is a manifestation of His power- it accomplishes His will, and there is no insecurity or uncertainty. God's power is infinite and gracious, and He chooses to use His power for our good.

Application Questions: 

1. What are some ways you see your own heart drawn towards earthly power?

2. What insecurities do you see in your own heart and life regarding power/getting what you desire?

3. How does God's power induce fear? How does God's power induce hope and peace?

4. What is gracious about God's power?

5. How can God's gracious and infinite power embolden you and strengthen you in suffering?

Thinking about the nature of God can make him feel distant. When we realize that he is transcendent, sufficient, and eternal it's hard to think of him as close. But, the eternal God is not far away, but is always fully present with us. And recognizing his presence changes everything.

Application Questions: 

1. Do you constantly recognize that God is with you, or do you often slip into a functional Deism (believing he is far away)? And why do you think that is?

2. Do you tend to think of God as always fully present with you? Or do you think of him as possibly being distracted? How does that change how you live?

3. Does the thought that God is fully with you initially bring you comfort, fear, or both? Why?

4. How might you follow David's example in praying a prayer of confession in light of God's constant presence?

One of the most comforting attributes of God is that he is unchanging. Unlike everything else in creation, God is perfectly stable, never wavering, never shifting, a rock that will never fail. James finds this truth very practical for dealing with the realities of life. In suffering and struggle, it's God's unchanging goodness that anchors us in the storm.

Application Questions: 

1. How does the idea of an unchanging God comfort you? How does it challenge you? 

2. How do you think about the gifts in your life? How might they point you to God?

3. What about God's stability makes the gospel more comforting and more joyful? 

We are working through the attributes of God, and this week we come to God's eternity. God is "from everlasting to everlasting." He stands above time, with no beginning and no end. Compared to God's eternity, we realize how temporary we are, and how all the things we put our hopes in will fade. When we understand that God is eternal, we will treat the past, the present, and the future differently, because Christ holds all of our time in his hands in love.

Application Questions: 

1. Have you ever thought about God's eternity? How might it change your perspective on things in your life now? 

2. Why does the psalmist focus so much on the brevity of life? Do you resonate with what he is saying? 

3. How have you put your hope in temporary things? 

4. How is the gospel richer and more beautiful knowing that Christ is eternal yet stepped into time for us? 

Exodus 3 is the place where someone first asks God for his name. What do we learn about from this encounter? First, we learn that God is knowable—he is not an impersonal force, but a God with a name. Second, we find he is all sufficient. Everything in existence depends on God, but he depends on nothing; we can offer him nothing, he gives us everything. Finally, we find a radical love. When the all sufficient God desires to know you, it's can't be because you offer him something. It must be pure love, which we see in its fullness in Jesus Christ.

Application Questions: 

1. How have you experienced the difference between knowing about God and knowing God? 

2. How does God's sufficiency feel humbling you? How does God's sufficiency feel freeing to you? 

3. How does God's sufficiency make his love more striking—especially when seen in the death of Christ?