To Encourage You

Philippians 3:7-11 “But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ  and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—  that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,  that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.”

How well do you know God? Do you know Him at all?  Maybe you think that to be a ridiculous question – for who can really know Him?  But do you want to know Him, if, in fact, He is indeed knowable?  Well, if your answer is yes to that question, the next question is “How badly do you want to know Him?” You see, the only way you will ever know Him is if it is the foremost desire of your life.  We know this because God has told us so with these words: “You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart (Jeremiah 29:13).”  But what exactly does that mean?  How do we actually do this?  We can’t see God, so how can we seek Him?  He’s an invisible spirit, so how can anyone ever really know Him?  There are many parts to this answer, but let’s just touch on a few. 

First, we must realize that we are finite while God is infinite.  That means we need help to know Him – in fact we need a lot of help.  At the very least, we need an entire change of heart. We need to be born again, or as Jesus explained, we need to be “born of the Spirit” and thus become a child of God. We do this when we place our trust in Jesus’ death as the penalty for our sin, repent of that sin, and surrender to Jesus as the Lord of our life.  With the new birth, God becomes our Heavenly Father, and thereby opens up for us a way to know Him that only His children can ever experience.  

But then another step in this process is to spend time reading the Bible, God’s Word, for in it He reveals Himself to us, i.e., how He thinks, what He loves and what He hates, and His many magnificent attributes.  We become more and more familiar with our Heavenly Father as He speaks to us through His Word, and as His Holy Spirit reveals its meaning to us. It is God Himself, by way of His Spirit, Who comes to dwell within the believer, and “opens our eyes to behold wondrous things in His law” (Psalm 119:18).  

But then there is another step, one that Paul alludes to in the verses from Philippians 3 above.  In this passage, Paul talks about the loss of things that he might know Christ.  He talks about sharing in the sufferings of Christ so that he might know Him better.  So does your desire to know God go that far? Are you willing to suffer in perhaps many ways in order to know Him?  Are you willing to be tested to see if what you know in your head about God is also deep in your heart? Are you willing to suffer loss and grow more and more reliant on the Savior, more and more needful of Him, in order to really know this One Who supplies every need?  Are you willing to be stripped of all the things you, perhaps unwittingly, have been trusting in other than God, and be placed in a position with nowhere else to turn but to Him, for He is all you really have? 

You see, He really is all any of us ever have. It is God alone who sustains every living thing (Colossians 1:16-17). Every good thing in life that anyone ever experiences comes only from this One Who reigns over all (James 1:17). Every breath we breathe is a gift from a God Who loved us while we were yet sinners and sent His Son to die for us.  But so many people know nothing about this. And so many, probably most of us, that do know this are only scratching the surface as to how much we know about this infinite God.  But if we long to know Him more, if we will draw near to Him in the ways that He has made available to  us, He promises us that He will draw near to us (James 4:8). 

And one other thing, if we really and truly want to draw near to Him, we will persist in our efforts to know Him. We won’t give up.  We’ll persevere.  And we’ll turn away from “everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles us” (Hebrews 12:1).  You see, to seek to “know” sin, by experiencing what it offers, is to turn away from God, which greatly impedes our ability to “know” Him.  

Just some suggestions from God’s Word – guidance He has given all of us if we really and truly want to know Him.