Bless-ed! 52 Blessings You Have As a Believer! (Blessing #8)

BLESSING #8: The Blessing of a Longing to Know God
“Whatever keeps me from the Bible is my enemy, however harmless it may appear to be. Whatever engages my attention when I should be meditating on God and things eternal does injury to my soul. Let the cares of life crowd out the Scriptures from my mind and I have suffered loss where I can least afford it. Let me accept anything else instead of the Scriptures and I have been cheated and robbed to my eternal confusion.” (A.W. Tozer)

My friend Mike is unsaved. That’s biblical language for his condition before God. In trying to reach my friend, I’m becoming more aware of what I have as a believer and what my friend Mike doesn’t yet have.
Let’s consider an eighth benefit of the believer which we have and it is that —

8. WE HAVE A LONGING TO KNOW GOD THROUGH STUDYING HIS WORD!
I heard the story of a professor who was being questioned by the police about a student who being charged with a serious crime. The professor said, “Oh, yes. He did attend my class. But he was never my student.” Some Christians are just “in the class” and haven’t yet realized they are now life-long students of the Word of God!

THE BLESSING: The believer in Christ has an incredible resource for life in the Word of God, the Bible. He or she can read and study and meditate on the 66 books in the Bible — and be changed in the process!

BIBLE: When I became a believer as a teenager, the elders of my church would share a verse with me from the King James Bible: “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” (2 Tim. 2:15). Their motive was pure. They wanted me to become a student of the Word. The word “study” in this verse is really a word that means “do your best” or “be diligent” or “make every effort.” This same Timothy is commended in 2 Timothy 3 with the following words: “And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.” (v. 15). Yes, God’s Word can lead one to salvation. But it also inspires a life-long quest to know the Lord, as the Apostle Paul says in Philippians 3 “That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death” (v. 10).

ACTION STEPS 1. Complete the following sentence: “I want to be a student of God’s Word because ___________________.
2. Have a conversation with another believer this week who clearly lives to know the Lord better. What are their habits? How do they interact with the Bible on a daily basis? What choices do they make on a daily basis that help them move on in their Christian lives?
3. Read Psalm 63 every day this week and take notes on what it means to long to know the Lord.
PRAYER 4. Pray for your unsaved friend that he would begin to long to know God. Pray for yourself that the two of you would be open to studying the Word together.

 

Getting to Know . . . I Samuel! (2:1-11) A MIGHTY PRAYER OF FAITH!

“No more diapers to change!”  I doubt those were the words of Hannah as she left Eli’s presence after turning over her son Samuel!  Some suggest she may have had six other sons (see 2:5) to take care of.  But she keeps her vow and praises God for His answering her agonized prayer.

Please notice several features in Hannah’s prayer:

1. She focuses on the character of her God!  “There is no one holy like the Lord, no one besides you, no Rock like our God.” (v. 2).  “The Lord is a God who knows; by him deeds are weighed.” (v. 3).  He is the Lord who brings death and makes alive; He sends poverty and wealth; He humbles and exalts (vv. 6-7).  The Lord will judge the ends of the earth (v. 10).  Hannah knew her Lord!
2.  She rejoices in God’s meeting her need!  She describes herself as “those who were hungry are hungry no more.  She who was barren has borne seven children! (v. 5).  She sees herself as one who has been raised from the dust, from the ash heap, and has been seated with princes (v. 8).
3. She speaks warnings to the wicked!  Those who talk proudly or speak arrogantly will be weighed by the Lord (v. 3).  He breaks the bows of the warriors (v. 4).  The wicked will be silenced in the place of darkness (v. 9).  Those who oppose the Lord will be broken (v. 10).

Elkanah (with Hannah and Peninnah) return home, “but the boy ministered before the Lord under Eli the priest (v. 11).

Oh, that my knowledge of and faith in the Lord were close to Hannah’s!

 

How Should I Pray for . . . Others? (A Study of Colossians 1:9-14) Part 7

On a scale of 1 to 10, where would you rate your growing knowledge of God?  Just acquaintances?  Strong friendship?  Deep connection and relationship?  Believers should not be content with just being saved and being in God’s family.  The Bible is clear that we ought to be growing in our knowledge of the Lord!

The reason I bring this up is because of Paul’s specific prayer request for these Colossian believers.  We’ve seen his strategic commitment to pray for these believers in Colossian 1:9.  We then began noticing the specific content of his prayer in verses 9-12. We’ve seen his first request for them and it was that they would be filled with a knowledge of God’s will (v. 9). His second request was that they would live a life worthy of the Lord (v. 10).  His third request was that they would bear fruit in every good work (v. 10).

Please notice with me Paul’s fourth request for these believers. It is that they would —

D. Grow in the Knowledge of God (v. 10)

Our world scoffs at us for thinking that we “know” God, but that’s the biblical promise, isn’t it?  Paul declares in Philippians 3- “But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. ⁸ What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things.”  We can know God!  And we are to grow in our knowledge of Him!

Are you and I praying for others that they grow in their knowledge of God?  Scripture is clear that God can be known and our knowledge can increase.  We can learn more of His attributes, His character, His ways of working in our lives and in this world.

I’ve been greatly helped by J.I. Packer’s classic Knowing God.  [There’s a special place in heaven for those who have read that entire book.  It’s challenging!].  J.B. Phillips’ Your God Is Too Small and Mark Buchanan’s Your Good Is Too Safe are also quite helpful in deepening one’s walk with Him.

Pray for someone else today that they would grow in their knowledge of the Lord.  And not just in their head knowledge of Him.  But that their relationship with the Lord would deepen!  [I just took my own advice.  Your turn.]  (to be continued)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back to the Basics: Theology Proper #15 God’s KNOWABILITY! (Part 1)

We’ve looked at the logic of God wanting to know His creatures, made in His image, and how special revelation makes sense.  A good Creator would want to reveal truth about Himself so that human beings, made in His image, could have a relationship with Him.

Let’s think a bit more about God’s knowability.  He is not some far-off deity who doesn’t care about His creation, but rather One who wants an intimate relationship with each one of us through His Son Jesus.  We can know God!  Of the many verses in the Scriptures about knowing God, several speak to the issue of knowing about God and His works.  For example,

1 Kings 8:60 “so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the Lord is God and that there is no other.”

2 Kings 19:19 “Now, Lord our God, deliver us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone, Lord, are God.”

Psalm 100:3 “Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.”

The entire book of Ezekiel (an Old Testament book seldom read) makes one overall point:  “that they may know that I am the Lord!”

Many verses talk about God’s actions on behalf of His people Israel and against those enemy nations that sought to do them harm.  But there is a difference between knowing that and knowing . . . Him (to be continued)