Knowing
God
Jesus said it.
“Now this is eternal life: that they may know you,
the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent (John 17:3). Paul
focused his life on it. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection
and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his
death” (Philippians 3:10).
Who wouldn’t want to know God? It is the most humble,
almighty, supernatural, thrilling reality that any of us can have. To know
the President or another famous person is one thing, but to know God is radically
different. Knowing God is possible, but in some ways more difficult than knowing
a celebrity.
I used to be a regular guest on a Christian radio station, and I discovered
something about my very minor circle of fame. Fame has little to do with you
and who you are. The larger aspect of fame has to do with the people who recognize
you or feel as if they know you. It isn’t that you are so great; it’s
that you make the person who recognizes you think they are great. For example,
I’m not a big fan of Jay Leno, but if I had a chance to get my picture
with him, I would probably take it and share it with my friends. Having a
picture with a famous person makes me feel my worth a little more. Knowing
God is that on so much bigger a scale. When you really know God, you learn
your real worth. You see yourself in truth and wonder.
Knowing God begins when you recognize that you are not worthy to know Him.
You get it that you and God are worlds apart. You can accept that holiness
and you do not mix. You can understand that the distance between you and God
is connected to your own fallen nature. You may not totally comprehend, but
you are willing to consider that God has found a miraculous solution to the
strain on your relationship with Him through Jesus Christ. Knowing God begins
with knowing that Jesus is His Son, Whom He sent to die, be buried and rise
to life so that you can have eternal life, which is mainly knowing God.
Heaven is knowing God. We were created to know God. We don’t know God
as we were created to know Him because of the holiness we lost through sin.
When we believe in faith that Jesus is God’s Son, we are made holy and
are able to reconnect to God. We don’t know Him as He is because our
sin nature still disguises the truth of the beauty of God. We have to work
at knowing Him. Paul found that knowing God meant focusing on God’s
Son Jesus Christ and following how Jesus lived His life of knowing God. Jesus
knows God, but He also worked at knowing God. He spent time with God in prayer;
sometimes He spent whole nights in prayer (Matthew 14:23). He kept in contact
with God throughout the day, sensing God’s presence in a place to accomplish
a healing work through Him (Luke 5:17). He asked God what His will was for
His life, most dramatically in the Garden of Gethsemane the night before He
died (Matthew 26:42). Paul, likewise, spent time with God in personal prayer.
He kept contact with God through the day (Philippians 4:6), sensing God’s
presence in special settings (Acts 14:23), and he followed God’s will
for his life even when Paul’s own ideas were different than God’s
(Acts 16:6).
Do you know God in these ways? What keeps you from knowing God?
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