🎵 The words of a popular old song went like this:
To know him is to love him.
This can truly be said only of God.
📖 Some of us have problems following fully the Golden Commandment:
Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.
And that’s because we don’t know the Lord our God right.
Or else our knowledge of Him is scanty, partial, not complete but we imagine that we know all there’s to knowing the Almighty.
A little learning is a dangerous thing, as you know.
💬 Prophet Hosea laments, people perish for lack of knowledge.
In our times, J.I. Packer asks, What are we made for?
And promptly provides the answer too: To know God.
🌿 What’s the best thing in life, bringing more joy, delight and entertainment than all other things?
Knowledge of God, he says.
📜 If at all there’s something we can boast of, it is not about wisdom, strength or riches,
but that we understand and know God, Jeremiah makes clear in chapter 9.
🔥 In the New Testament listing of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, knowledge ranks second.
To crown it all, what’s the eternal life Jesus gives?
John 17:3 asserts:
This is eternal life; that they may KNOW you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.
📖 Knowing God spells:
- Listening to God’s voice through the Word
- Receiving it as the Spirit of God interprets it
- Taking cognisance of the character of God as His word and works reveal it
- Carrying out His commands
💗 It also means rejoicing in the love He has shown us in approaching us — ordinary sinful people that we are.
🙏 I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better,
writes Apostle Paul in the opening chapter of Ephesians.
📘 In two more epistles, again in the first chapters (Philippians 1:9, Colossians 1:9-10), Paul prays for the very same blessing — of knowing the Maker better — thus reiterating the importance.
🌊 The idea in Isaiah 11:9,
The earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea
finds echo in Habakkuk 2:14 where it’s richer:
knowledge of the glory of the Lord.
🎶 All over the world the Spirit is moving… as the waters cover the sea – can you hear strains of this old popular chorus in the distance?
Sounds idyllic of a time to come — of peace and harmony — when an all-pervasive knowledge of God will wipe out evil.
🕊 In these war-torn days when evil seems to be rampant, here is news to warm your hearts:
🗞 In April this year, The Guardian reported that a revival is happening among young people in England.
📈 On March 14 this year, The Times magazine stated that Bible sales have increased by 87% since 2018.
They also report that atheism is on the decline among Gen Zees (born between 1997 and 2012).
💫 To know God and make him known sums up the core purpose of our lives.
Yes, we need to have a personal relationship with God, marked by:
- Learning about Him
- Experiencing His presence
- Sharing the truth with others
📖 This means both seeking to understand God’s nature and character through Scripture and prayer,
and doing our utmost to share this treasure of God’s love and salvation.
