HOSEA 6:3 – Let us know; let us press on to know the Lord; his going out is sure as the dawn; he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth.”

THEME OF THE DAY. THE WORK OF KNOWING GOD. We should make a disclaimer with the theme of the day. The work of knowing God begins and ends with the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are not saved by works, but grace – For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast (Ephesians 2:8-9). No merits of our own, no amount of attempted obedience, and no other thing a human being may do will grant a saving knowledge of God. We come into a reconciled relationship with Him only by grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 1:3-14). But that isn’t the end of the story. Christians are granted eternal life, defined by Jesus as “knowing God and Jesus Christ whom You have sent”, and then they are commanded to grow in the “grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ” (John 17:3; 2 Peter 3:18). There is a work we are called to when it comes to knowing God. We see this truth in today’s scripture with language pointing us to great effort, toil, and a “stick-to-it” attitude of perseverance that presses on no matter the difficulty. So, as we obey the command to know the Lord, here are two applications to help us in the effort.

Foremost, we must have the desire to know Him. Be careful here. Don’t be quick to be a Christian who easily says, “I want to know the Lord” but manifests a lifestyle, particularly the discipline of our time, revealing the desire isn’t really there. King Solomon gives a good description of this disillusioned and lazy Christian – The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied (Proverbs 13:4). Also be careful not to say, “You don’t know my life, Pastor Jim. There are so many demands and things to do. I just don’t have the time to seek to know the Lord.” Actually, you do. I do. Maybe we need to give up something that steals time. It is true; we will always make time to do what is most important to us. And if we want to know the Lord, then it will mean desire turned discipline in His Word and prayer to know Him. That leads to another application in the work of knowing God . . .

We must discipline our bodies and time to know the Lord. There are no shortcuts to getting close to the Lord. It will take “spiritual sweat” and a refusal to let time be gobbled up with the things of the world, even good things. A good practice is to schedule time with the Lord – daily. Develop a daily habit of meeting Him and don’t compromise it for anything or anyone other than emergencies. But the most difficult discipline will be of our flesh and its always craving desire for ease, comfort, and rest. The Apostle Paul knew this challenge. He wrote, “But I discipline my body and keep it under control . . . (1 Corinthians 9:27a). Friends, we simply must not allow our flesh to master us when it comes to seeking to know the Lord. It we give into the flesh, we will not know Him. We will let fatigue keep us from the Word. We will let television, social media, the internet, and other things that are mindless and require little effort keep us from prayer. And this fight is daily, but we can overcome because greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world (1 John 4:4).

Knowing the Lord is a work. First the work of Christ enabling us to know Him, and then the personal discipline of ourselves to do the work of knowing Him more. May God show us the great privilege of knowing Him that motivates us to the noble work of knowing Him.

PRAYER: “Father, forgive me when I profess to want to know You but don’t seek to know You.”

QUOTE: “When a true desire to know God is present so will be the self-discipline to pursue Him.”