I have concluded that many people in our culture have a flawed view of God. Many have no clue what to think of Him. As I look back on my life, there was a time when I was engaged in a tug of war with God, only to find that the God on the other end of the rope was entirely different from what I had imagined.

Os Guiness tells an interesting story:

I will never forget a woman who sat in our living room when we lived in Switzerland. She argued; she cried; she pounded the floor. Why should she trust God? He was a monster; a hard, unyielding monarch; a Mafia boss whose power was everywhere; a merciless creditor who demanded his pound of flesh. Hadn’t she tried to obey? Hadn’t she given it everything? But the more she saw God the more she feared, and the more she feared the more she became angry, and the angrier she became the more she hated, and the more she hated the more afraid of God she grew.

She knew she was caught in a vicious trap, sliding down a slippery spiral. She was young; she was loved; she was successful. But none of it made any difference. She could not trust God. She could not trust with real rest and without reservations. And in the bitterness of doubt, her spirit was like darkness at noon.

Have you ever felt that way?

Fortunately, today this woman has come to know who God really is. She is now able to trust Him and entrust herself to Him. Guiness says, “her whole life reflects the difference, it has transformed her.”

Recently, I read a verse that really had an impact on me. In Isaiah 30:18 we are told, “Therefore the Lord longs to be gracious to you, and therefore waits on high to have compassion on you…” This is the God we serve. “He longs to be gracious to us.”

Richard E Simmons III is the founder and Executive Director of The Center for Executive Leadership and a best-selling author.