Let us know,
Let us pursue the knowledge of the Lord.
(Hosea 6:3)
AS WE REACH FORWARD IN LIFE, ONE OF THE PRIMARY THINGS WE REACH FOR IS THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD. Even in practical matters, there is nothing we need more than a knowledge of Him as He truly is, and the knowledge of God ought to be something we pursue with a passion that is both diligent and persistent.
Gaining a knowledge of God requires more than the mere accumulation of facts about Him. Jesus, for example, rebuked the Jewish scholars of His day for their failure to know God, despite the fact that they had “search[ed] the Scriptures” (John 5:39). God is a personal Being, and we must desire to know God Himself.
Yet there is no knowing God in the personal sense without factual information about Him. We do not come to know God intuitively or with our feelings or by non-verbal meditation. If God exists, then He is a real entity, an objective reality. We can no more know Him in the absence of factual information than we could know any other reality without the facts about it.
But here is the point: if the knowledge of God is important and if that knowledge requires the learning of certain information, then the learning of that information ought to be a matter of high priority with us. Far above any other knowledge, the knowledge of God is one that we would want to pursue. But how diligently do any of us really do that? How high a priority is it with you to know more of the truth about God today than you knew yesterday? Honestly now, what would you sacrifice to gain an hour’s worth of time to study the Scriptures? Anything of significant value?
We often wonder why our spiritual lives are so dry and static. But spiritual growth comes from an increasing knowledge of God. So I suggest not only that we need to study the Scriptures but that we do so with a more conscious intent to know God. That is our quest, and what a great one it is! If there is such a thing as a “high-leverage” activity, this would be the highest. You can’t help yourself more greatly than by pursuing the knowledge of God.
“Nothing will so enlarge the intellect, nothing so magnify the whole soul of man, as a devout, earnest, continued investigation of the great subject of the Deity” (Charles Haddon Spurgeon).
Gary Henry – WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com
