JOHN 17:1-3 – When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
JEREMIAH 9:24 – But let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.”
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.”
PHILIPPIANS 3:10 – That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and may share in His sufferings becoming like Him in His death.
THEME OF THE DAY: KNOWING JESUS. Today’s nugget is a little out of its norm. Instead of one portion of scripture establishing the theme, there are four. In reading them, did we recognize the commonalities among them? There are two.
First, the proclamation by God defining what eternal life is, coupled with what we are to boast in. This is found in the John and Jeremiah passages – knowing God. The second commonality is in the Hosea and Philippians passages; our responsibility to know God. We are not just zapped into knowing God, we are to pursue him with zeal and purpose.
What would be easy to do right now is to go off and start rattling off a list of things we are to do to know God; prayer, Bible study, listen to preaching, fight against sin, and be faithful to church. And there are things we must do to know Him. We must be disciplined in the Word and prayer. Church attendance is equally important. As for fighting against sin? For sure. We cannot begin to study the Word of God to know Him if we are in willful sin. But as important as the spiritual disciplines of the Word, prayer, fighting sin, and faithfulness to church are, they must be properly motivated and sustained. If not, there will be many Christians who acquire a lot of knowledge about Jesus but not grow in knowing Jesus. There is a difference between knowing about Jesus and knowing Jesus. The former fills us with knowledge of His Person. The latter leads to humility, holiness, and deepening love for Him. Knowing Him is transformational. Knowing about Him is not and it all begins with desire.
In the pursuit of knowing Jesus, we don’t start with our activity. We start with our heart. God is all about the heart when it comes to our relationship with Him. He wants our heart. He wants to be the chief object of our affections, and the chief pursuit in life. And rightly so. He deserves it, and we are only satisfied when He has all of us, all the time. So, ask this question and answer it honestly. It is the question about the verse I am about to share – “Are we right now able to say this with sincerity as evident in our attitude and actions in our lives?” – Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.
(Psalm 73:25). This and this place only is where knowing Jesus begins.
PRAYER: “Father, deepen within me a thirst to know You, Your Son, and the self-discipline to satisfy that thirst.”
QUOTE: “The Christian life is knowing God and the Lord Jesus, not cold facts about them, but heart experience of Them.”
In the affection of Christ Jesus,
Pastor Jim