The attributes of God are the qualities that make Him who He is, things like His holiness, His love, His faithfulness, His power, and His unchanging nature. Friend, when your life feels shaky, the steadiest thing you can do is stop and remember who God is. Not what you are facing. Who He is. This is a plain, memorable list of God’s attributes, each with a short meaning, a verse where you can see it, and a word about why it holds you up when the ground is moving. If you would like a gentle way to sit with one of these each day, our free 5-day journey, Feel Close to God Again, takes about ten minutes a day.
What are the attributes of God?
The attributes of God are the consistent qualities the Bible uses to describe His character and nature. They are not moods that come and go. They are always true of Him, all at once, all the time.
Teachers usually sort them into two simple groups:
- Attributes God alone has. Things like being eternal, unchanging, and all-powerful. You and I will never share these. They are His alone.
- Attributes God shares with you in part. Things like love, mercy, patience, and faithfulness. He has these perfectly, and He grows them in you as you walk with Him.
Older books call these “incommunicable” and “communicable” attributes. The words are a mouthful, but the idea is warm: some of who God is stays fixed above you like the sky, and some of who God is He is pouring into you right now.
How many attributes of God are there?
There is no single fixed number of God’s attributes, which is why you will see lists of 7, 10, 12, 13, and even 100. The Bible never hands us a numbered list, so each teacher draws the lines a little differently. Most solid lists land somewhere between sixteen and twenty core attributes. The number is not the point. Knowing Him is the point.
Attributes that describe who God is in Himself
These attributes describe God’s own nature, the part of Him that does not depend on you, change with you, or waver when you do.
- Eternal. God has no beginning and no end. “Before the mountains were born… from everlasting to everlasting you are God” (Psalm 90:2). When your world feels temporary, He was here before it and He will be here after.
- Unchanging. God does not shift or improve or cool off. “I the Lord do not change” (Malachi 3:6). The God who loved you on your best day loves you exactly the same on your worst one.
- Holy. God is entirely pure and set apart, without a shadow of wrong in Him. “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty” (Isaiah 6:3). His holiness is not cold. It is the reason His promises can be trusted completely.
- Sovereign. God rules over everything, and nothing happens outside His reach. “He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth” (Daniel 4:35). Your situation is not the boss. He is.
- Spirit. God is not limited to a body or a place. “God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth” (John 4:24). He is with you in the hospital room and the kitchen and the car, all at the same time.
- Self-existent. God depends on no one. He simply is. He told Moses, “I AM WHO I AM” (Exodus 3:14). He does not need you to hold Him up, which means He is never too tired or too stretched to hold you.
Attributes that describe how God relates to you
These attributes describe how God moves toward you, the parts of His character you feel most personally.
- Love. Love is not just something God does. It is what He is. “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love” (1 John 4:8). You do not earn your way in. You were loved first.
- Good. God is kind all the way through, and everything He gives comes from that goodness. “Taste and see that the Lord is good” (Psalm 34:8). Even the hard roads He walks you down lead somewhere good.
- Merciful and gracious. God is slow to hold your failures against you and quick to help. He is “compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love” (Exodus 34:6). His mercy is not a limited offer.
- Faithful. God keeps every promise He makes, in full, on time. “His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness” (Lamentations 3:22-23). He has never once broken His word, and He is not going to start with you.
- Just. God always does what is right, and He sees what no one else saw. “He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just” (Deuteronomy 32:4). Nothing done to you in secret is hidden from Him.
- Patient. God is not in a hurry to give up on people. He is “patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish” (2 Peter 3:9). If you have been slow to come back to Him, He has been waiting, not tapping His foot.
- All-knowing. God knows everything, including the parts of your story you cannot explain to anyone. “Great is our Lord and mighty in power; his understanding has no limit” (Psalm 147:5). He is never caught off guard by your news.
- All-present. There is nowhere you can go where God is not already there. “Where can I flee from your presence?… your right hand will hold me fast” (Psalm 139:7-10). You have not wandered too far for Him to reach.
- All-powerful. Nothing is too hard for God. “Ah, Sovereign Lord… Nothing is too hard for you” (Jeremiah 32:17). The same power that made the stars is the power at work in your situation.
What is the difference between communicable and incommunicable attributes?
Incommunicable attributes belong to God alone, while communicable attributes are ones He shares with people in a limited way. Here is how a few of them line up.
| Incommunicable (God alone) | Communicable (shared with you in part) |
|---|---|
| Eternal: no beginning or end | Loving: you can love because He first loved you |
| Unchanging: never shifts | Faithful: you can learn to keep your word like He keeps His |
| All-powerful: nothing is too hard | Merciful: you can forgive because you were forgiven |
| All-knowing: understanding without limit | Patient: His Spirit grows patience in you |
| Self-existent: needs no one | Just: you can do right because He defines what right is |
Look at that second column again. Those are the very things you have been asking God to build in you. He is not asking you to manufacture them on your own. He is sharing His own character with you.
Which attribute of God matters most when you are struggling?
When you are in a hard season, the attributes that tend to steady people most are God’s faithfulness, His presence, and His love. You do not need a theology exam in the middle of a crisis. You need to know He is with you, He keeps His word, and He is for you.
Pick the one that meets your need right now. If you feel alone, hold onto His presence. If you are worn out from waiting, hold onto His faithfulness. If you feel like you have blown it, hold onto His mercy. The whole list is true at once, so you are never choosing wrong.
How do you learn the attributes of God?
The simplest way to learn the attributes of God is to take one at a time and live with it for a week instead of trying to swallow the whole list at once. Here is a plan that works.
- Pick one attribute. Start with love, faithfulness, or goodness if you are not sure.
- Study the verse. Write it out and sit with it. The SOAP Bible study method is a good ten-minute frame for this.
- Watch for it. All week, notice where that attribute shows up in your day, your past, and other people’s stories.
- Pray it back. Thank God for being that, out loud, in your own words.
Do that for a few months and something quiet happens. You stop having to talk yourself into trusting God, because you know Him. Learning who He is one attribute at a time is also one of the surest ways to draw closer to God.
Frequently asked questions
What are the 7 attributes of God?
A common short list of seven attributes of God is: eternal, holy, sovereign, all-knowing, all-powerful, all-present, and loving. Different teachers swap in others like faithful, just, or unchanging. There is no official set of seven, so treat it as a starting point rather than the whole picture.
What are the three O’s of God?
The three O’s are omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent, which mean all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-present. They are a memorable way to describe attributes that belong to God alone. Psalm 139 touches all three in a single chapter.
What is the most important attribute of God?
The Bible does not rank God’s attributes, but two are pointed to most directly: His holiness, which the angels in Isaiah 6 and Revelation 4 repeat three times, and His love, which 1 John 4:8 says He simply is. Rather than choosing one, it helps to see that His love is holy and His holiness is loving.
Which attribute of God is mentioned most in the Bible?
God’s love, mercy, and steadfast faithfulness are among the most repeated ideas in Scripture, especially in the Psalms, where the phrase “his love endures forever” appears again and again. His holiness is the only attribute Scripture states three times in a row for emphasis. Both themes run from Genesis to Revelation.
Feel close to God again in 5 days
Ten minutes a day. One truth about who God is, a short prayer, one small step. No pressure and no guilt, just a gentle way back to His presence. I believe that if you give Him those few minutes, you are going to be amazed at what He does with them.