What Is God Like?
A God We Can Picture?
Most of us carry some picture of God, often formed in childhood. For some it is an old man with a beard. For others it is a stern judge, a distant force, or a kindly grandfather. These pictures are understandable — we are human, and we think in images. But they can quietly distort how we think about God and how we pray.
The Church’s teaching on what God is like is both humbling and deeply consoling. It begins by admitting that God is greater than anything we can imagine. And it ends with the most astonishing claim of all: that this infinite God is love.
We Speak of God by Comparison
Before saying anything about God, the Church adds a caution. Because God is infinite and we are finite, our words can never capture Him fully. When we say God is “good” or “wise,” we mean something true — but His goodness and wisdom are far beyond ours. We speak of God by analogy, using words drawn from created things, while knowing that He surpasses them all (CCC 39–43).
The Fourth Lateran Council (1215) put it this way: between Creator and creature, no likeness can be found that does not include an even greater unlikeness. So we should speak of God with confidence, because He has made Himself known — and with humility, because He is always more.
”I Am Who Am”
When Moses asked God His name at the burning bush, God replied: “I AM WHO I AM” (Exodus 3:14). The Church has always seen in this name a key to God’s nature.
God simply is. He does not receive existence from anything else. He does not come into being or pass away. Everything else exists because He gives it existence; He exists because it is His very nature to exist. Theologians call this being “the fullness of being” (CCC 213). Every other quality of God flows from this.
God Is One
There is only one God. This is the first truth of the faith of Israel: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord” (Deuteronomy 6:4). Christians believe God is a Trinity of Persons — Father, Son and Holy Spirit — but not three gods. There is one divine nature, one God. For more, see What Does the Church Teach About the Trinity?
God Is Spirit
God has no body. He is pure spirit (John 4:24). When the Bible speaks of God’s hand, arm or face, it is using images to express His power, action and presence. This is why the Church says God is neither man nor woman. He transcends the distinction between the sexes, even though Scripture speaks of Him as Father (CCC 239).
God Is Eternal and Unchanging
God has no beginning and no end. He is not in time as we are, moving from past to future. All of time is present to Him at once.
God also does not change. This does not mean He is cold or static. It means He is perfect, lacking nothing, so He cannot become better or worse. His love does not cool, His promises do not fail, His truth does not shift. “I the Lord do not change” (Malachi 3:6). For us, who change constantly, this is a source of great security.
God Is Everywhere
God is present everywhere, holding every creature in existence. There is no place where He is not. “Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? Or whither shall I flee from thy presence?” (Psalm 139:7). This does not mean God is spread thinly across space like a gas. It means His power and presence reach to every part of creation, all at once and completely.
God Is All-Powerful
God can do anything that is possible. He created the universe from nothing and sustains it in being. “With God nothing will be impossible” (Luke 1:37).
His power is not arbitrary. God cannot do what is self-contradictory — make a square circle, for example — because that is not a “thing” to be done at all. Nor can He sin, because sin is a lack, a failure, and God lacks nothing. The Catechism notes that God’s power is shown above all in His mercy: in forgiving sins and bringing good out of evil (CCC 270, 277).
God Knows All Things
Nothing is hidden from God. He knows the past, the present and the future, every thought and every intention. “Even the hairs of your head are all numbered” (Matthew 10:30).
This raises an old question: if God knows what I will do, am I really free? The Church’s answer is that God’s knowledge does not force anything. Because God is outside time, He does not foresee our choices in advance as if predicting them. He sees them in His eternal present, as they freely happen. His knowing does not cause our choosing.
God Is Good and Holy
God is goodness itself — not merely good in the way a good person is good, but the source and measure of all goodness. He is also holy: utterly pure, set apart from all evil. Isaiah saw the angels crying, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts” (Isaiah 6:3).
God Is Just and Merciful
God is perfectly just. He sees all things truly and judges rightly. But He is also infinitely merciful. In God, justice and mercy are not opposed. His mercy is not the setting aside of justice but its fulfilment in love. The Cross shows both at once: sin taken seriously, and sinners forgiven.
God Is Love
All of this could leave us with a God who is great but distant. The New Testament says something more: “God is love” (1 John 4:8).
This does not only mean that God loves us, though He does. It means that love is His very nature. Within the Trinity, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit live in an eternal exchange of love. God did not create us because He was lonely or needed anything. He created us out of pure generosity, to share His happiness with us.
That is the deepest answer to the question, “What is God like?” He is infinite, eternal, all-powerful and all-knowing — and He is love. The God who holds the universe in being knows your name.
What This Means for Prayer
Knowing what God is like changes how we pray. Because He is everywhere, we can pray anywhere. Because He knows all things, we need not explain ourselves at length. Because He is all-powerful, nothing is too big to ask. Because He is unchanging, we can rely on His promises. And because He is love, we can approach Him not with fear, but as children approach a Father.