The God You May Not Know

If you want to know God on a different level and you are not sure how to go about it, please reach out to Bro. Bo or Bro. Robert.  They will gladly help you work out a way to learn and grow more in spirit and become closer to the Lord in a deeply personal sense.

While spending time alone with God at my special place, I have pondered the question of what it means to know Him.  Not to know about God, but to really know Him.  I think most Christians feel a distance from God that they can't really explain, a sense that, if God is really God and they are really His children, knowing Him ought to be something more than it is. 

Here is a conclusion I have come up with in my own thoughts on knowing God:  We can only worship someone we love, and we can only love someone we know.  Think about your relationship with your spouse or sweetheart.  If the extent of that relationship was the exchange of a gift of flowers or chocolates or other remembrances on a regular basis, but no personal communication to go along with it, what kind of relationship would it be?  No relationship will prosper if it is based solely on "things" without an accompanying attachment of the heart and soul.

Is that how we treat God?  We bring him flowers and chocolates once a week in the form of our tithes and offerings or our presence in the Church's weekly services?  Then we wonder why our relationship with Him doesn't grow - if that is how we seek to develop a relationship with God, some serious problems will arise, in time.

Often we don't want to believe in our God who imposed limitations and penalties, we want a "god of love", but not one that also has rules and laws.  When you think about it, this is almost comical - that we would attempt to define who God is on the basis of our own whims and desires.  God is God and is not affected at all by who we think He is or should be.  But if we don't commit ourselves to knowing Him as He is, we will soon find that the God we worship bears little resemblance to the God of Scripture.  For too many Christians, theology is determined by practice:  We decide what we want to do, then invent a theology that allows it. 

If we don't know the true God for who He really is, we become vulnerable to someone else telling us who God is.  Someone who may be misguided or negligent with the truth.  Some people have a difficult time knowing God because of the abuses they received from their father when they were young.  They cannot disconnect their knowledge of their earthly father from their knowledge of their Heavenly Father, and so never come to know Him for who He is.  We were all affected by our earthly fathers one way or another, but this can't be a lifelong excuse for failing to come to know the true God.

Jeremiah 9:23-24 says, "Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, Let not the mighty man glory in his might, Nor let the rich man glory in his riches; But let him who glories glory in this, That he understands and knows Me, That I am the Lord, exercising loving kindness, judgement, and righteousness in the earth.  For in these I delight," says the Lord.  What do we boast or brag on?  Money?  Intelligence?  Accomplishments?  Popularity?  Jeremiah says don't boast about any of those things.  We should boast in the right thing with a humble attitude: that we understand and know God.  Hosea the prophet wrote that God delights more in people knowing Him than in making sacrifices to Him(Hosea 6:6).  Worship is also important but knowing God is the most important thing of all.  

Where are you on the continuum of spiritual growth and maturity?  If all you know is that you are saved, then you are still an infant; you need to work on taking it to the next level.  Becoming an adolescent in the faith should follow infancy.  During this time, your faith will be tested and you must start proving what you believe.  You begin to learn truth about God and see it validated in your own experience.  You start winning spiritual battles.   If you have been a spiritual adolescent for some time, you need to focus on knowing God much more intimately.  How would you feel if on a Sunday morning, every thought that crossed your mind for the last seven days were revealed in foot high letters on a screen in front of the Church?  I shudder to think....but at this stage in our journey we should have much more control over our thoughts, our speech, and our walk.  Any that may watch us should know that we are a Christian by our mannerisms, our work ethic, our conversation, our daily walk.  Our knowledge of God should be so intimate that when we transition to heaven, our adjustment to knowing and being known in heaven should be minimal - just a different location.  That is not a matter of pride but of purpose in our lives so that we ultimately come to know God, not just know about Him.  

Think of Daniel and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego:  these young Hebrews in Babylon could stand up to the king because they knew God and knew they were in the center of His will.  They were not afraid of anyone or anything. and were not about to defile their consciences or lower their standards just to please a pagan king.  Maybe if we knew God as well as they did, we could live with that same fearless power.

If you are a parent, you can probably remember a time when your child said "I love you," for no apparent reason.  Just out of the blue; they spoke those words that caught you off guard.  Naturally, most of what we hear from our children are their requests for this and that, and no parent is offended by those petitions.  But to hear "I love you" from your child as an affirmation of love with no ulterior agenda - that is the essence of relationship.  Somehow, I think God must feel the same way.  Most of our time communicating with God seems to be doing what children do:  asking their parent for something they need or cries for help.  In fact, He invites us to bring our requests to Him (Philippians 4:6-7).  The God we worship, the God we know, we should connect with more than just what He can do for us.  The premise is that we don't know God as well as we should if we don't also say "I love you" to Him often, earnestly and with a heart full of emotion and tender love.  We should honor His word with our words, respond to him in obedience, and serve Him with integrity.  We should join together with others in fervent prayer and worship Him gladly in song. 

What exactly is the essence of worship?  It is the celebration of God.  Yes, celebration is a perfect word, it suggests we "cheer" for God - for who He is and what He has done.  Think of all the things we celebrate in life without a second thought.  Do you ever jump up and down and/or yell for your special sports team, your child or grandchild's touchdown, homerun, or outstanding academic achievement?  Why should we not celebrate the existence and presence of our God with some of the same excitement?  

It is so easy to read the paper or watch the news and fall into a sense of despair about the conditions of this world.  When we know who our God is and transfer our head knowledge to a level of trust, we can live in peace.  We learn that His sovereignty, holiness, justice, omnipotence, and all knowing will guard us daily.  He is the highest authority in the universe.  But if we don't KNOW Him, the affairs of this world can keep us in a constant state of fear and worry.  As a Christian we should read the Bible and engage in prayer not just a spiritual exercises but as a means of coming to know our God better, trust him with our everything, and as a way to find what God would have us do.  To learn submission to the Lord's directives for our lives.  Submission - difficult word isn't it?  

If we are taught about the love, grace, and mercy of God, we applaud.  But if we don't know Him properly and are taught about His supreme authority, power, and our duty to obedience, we seem to somewhat rebel against that.  Mankind does not  like to hear that we are not in charge, we want to take destiny into our own hands.  Think about this sobering thought:  How have we done solving the world's problems our way? 

There is nothing you are experiencing that He is not fully aware of.  There is no reason for us not to live in perfect peace when we know our God. Knowing Him, we are prepared to live each day and we are preparing ourselves for our eternal life.  If the President of the United States came to your house, would you not rise, make him feel welcome, and treat him with respect regardless of your views on political policies?  How much more so should we give respect, admiration, reverence, and time to learn Him to the  Sovereign Ruler of the universe, the Lord of lords, the King of kings? 

Think - do you know God or just about God? 

                                                                                                                                                                                         David Jeremiah/rw