“A Heart To Know"

"A Heart To Know"  

      Christians rightly affirm the Biblical truth that salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ ushers us into personal relationship with God.

     "This is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent" (John 17:3).

     The word "know" in our Lord's declaration is translated from the Greek word "ginosko," implying a relational knowledge beyond the mere possession of facts.  Thus, we believe it possible that God can be known in our present lives despite our inability to perceive Him with our senses.  "We walk by faith, not by sight" (II Corinthians 5:7).  However, we also recognize that great challenge presents itself concerning the knowledge of God, even as the Apostle Paul acknowledged, "we see through a glass, darkly" (I Corinthians 13:12).  What does it mean to personally relate to God?  How do we actually do it?  What is His role, and what is our role in the bond of fellowship?  These questions require ongoing consideration, discovery, and application as we presently seek to avail ourselves of personal access to the heart and mind of our Lord.  If we have trusted in the Lord Jesus, our Father knows us in the sense of receiving us, and relating to us in familial terms rather than being merely our Creator.  Moreover, He desires that we might know Him in a manner that constitutes our awareness of Him in the context of truth, and in an experience we believe to be genuine and personally relational.  "Thou art my Father, my God, and the rock of my salvation" (Psalm 89:26).  

    We must consider the possibility and actuality of fellowship with God in both confidence and humility.  Our Lord can be known by His children, and He should indeed be the One who we know best.  Only God is with us always.  Only God has written to us a detailed document such as the Bible in which over the course of centuries, He communicated to all who will listen a vast portion of His heart and mind.  He also gave His indwelling Holy Spirit to inhabit our hearts when we believed, something no one else in our lives can do.  Thus, we should have great expectations regarding living communion with the Life of our lives as He promises to both live and walk in us (II Corinthians 6:16).  However, we also "walk humbly with thy God" in the knowledge that we are easily misled regarding this most vital matter of our lives (Micah 6:8).  No honest believer will fail to confess that we have too often misperceived our Lord's person, presence, and working in our hearts and lives.  The possibility of error and deception will remain with us throughout our earthly lives regarding our doctrinal and personal knowledge of God.  "Lead me in Thy truth, and teach me: for Thou art the God of my salvation; on Thee do I wait all the day" (Psalm 25:5).

   In Christ, God gives to us the greatest gift imaginable, namely, the gift of Himself.  "Ye are the temple of God, and… the Spirit of God dwelleth in you" (I Corinthians 3:16).  He knows us and we should expect to know Him in the light of truth and intimate experience.  We nevertheless receive the gift in solemn reverence and sober realization of how easily we neglect or wrongly perceive the blessing reality of "God with us" (Matthew 1:23).  Thus, we rejoice in the gift and also respect it in a manner that leads us in both grateful hope and godly fear.  God can be known, known personally, better than anyone else in our lives.  He should be, but we avail ourselves of the gift with much reverence and the realization of seeing through glass, darkly.

"I will give them a heart to know Me, that I am the LORD: and they shall be My people, and I will be their God."

(Jeremiah 24:7)

Weekly Memory Verse 

    Call unto Me and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not."

(Jeremiah 33:3)