I can say with all certainty that I know my parents and my brothers and sisters. After all, I lived in the same house with them for 17 years of my life. The same is even more true of my wife, whom I've lived in the same home with now for the past 33 years. We've become so close and so much a part of each others lives that we often find ourselves saying what the other is thinking; thus the coining of the phrase: "I was just going to say the very same thing." What I've just described to you then is a prerequisite necessary to cultivate a close or intimate relationship: Time spent in the presence of one another. There is no substitue for it. I believe that this is such and important concept that it deserves a real life example to further drive this point home. When I first met my wife over 33 years ago, I wanted to know all there was to know about her. So, what did I do? Did I go to my best friend and ask him to find out all that he could about her and then come back and tell me. No, of course not. I wanted to know, first hand, everything there was to know about this gal, so I pursued her with every ounce of energy that I had. But isn't that what we do sometimes when it comes to our relationship with God. Aren't we often satisfied to just go to church and swallow hook, line and sinker whatever the preacher has had to say, without going to the Bible to see if what he said measures up to God's Word. Have you ever walked away from a sermon thinking, "That didn't sound quite right to me but it must be true cuz' he's the preacher. " Dear friend, God put that thought in your mind for a reason. He never intended that His word should be "spoon fed" to you by someone else. No...this is what Jesus said, " Ask and it will be give you, seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you, for everyone who asks receives, he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks the door will be opened." Now please pay close attention to the words that are underlined in Jesus' statement. The words he, you and him are singular pronouns meanting YOU. Dear friend, there is no substitue for YOU spending time with GOD in prayer and the study of His Word if you really want to get to KNOW Him.
I'll never forget a question that was put to me in a Catholic school religion class when I was in the 2nd grade. It went like this: Why did God make me? The answer: God made me to know Him, to love Him, and to Serve Him in this world so that I can be happy with Him in the next world. Though that question and answer has stayed with me over these many years, it wasn't until a coupl of years ago thatI took a much closer look at the answer. Why was the answer to that question put in that specific order...to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him. The answer is really rather simple when you reverse the order...You won't serve Him unless you love Him...and you can't love Him unless you KNOW Him.
Did you know that God doesn't want you to simply believe that He is God just because He sad He is? Did you know that God doesn't want you to believe in Him just because someone said you're supposd to? Did you know that God loves you and wants you to believe in Him so much that He wants to present proof in your life that He is who He claims to be? Did you know that the desire of His heart is to hear you praise Him just because of what He has done for you in your life? Do you think the people in the Bible loved God simply because they were told to or was it because God proved Himself worthy of their love and praise and faithfulness? Listen to what He had to say to the Iraelites: "I am the Lord your God, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of these Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgement . I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will KNOW that I am the Lord your God who brought you out from unde the yoke of the Egyptians." (Ex. 6:6,7) Does that sound like a God who is demanding your allegience or a God who wants to prove Himself worthy of your acknowledgement, praise and adoration. "You were shown these things so that you might KNOW that the Lord is God; besides Him there is none other." (Deu. 4:35)
The Israelites were in trouble, oppressed, beaten down, helpless to help themselves. Then God stepped in and used the opprotunity of the moment to prove Himself God in there Lives. God's Word tells us that He is constant, that He longs for us to believe in Him just as He longed for the Iraelites to believe in Him and He is ready to prove Himself God in our lives just as He did for them. Dear friend, are you in trouble today, helpless to help yourself. Whatever your need might be today, the God of Israel wants to use the oportunity of this moment in your life to prove himself to be your God. Go to Him, confess your sin and ask Him to forgive you and to help you change...and then get read to acknowledge and praise and worship and thank him...becaus He is out to prove Himself God in your life.
Remember; "THEN YOU WILL KNOW THAT I AM THE LORD YOUR GOD>" |
