Getting To Know God

It’s really weird.

There is a thinking that says because you grew up in church, you know what it is to know God.  The thinking goes onto say that if you become a Christian then you should have an advantage in knowing what it is to know God.

What I’ve since discovered is that you can be in the church all your life, you can know it from your childhood to your adulthood, you can be aware of the formalities and events – but that does not mean you know how to know God.

It’s a personal thing, it’s a spiritual thing and for whatever anyone else says, it is something that you have to experience for yourself in getting to know God.

Why would you want to get to know God anyway? You want to know Him because you’ll acknowledge aspects about him, aspects that draw you close to him. For example there might be something about his nature of justice that appeals to you.  There might be something about how he provides, how he cares, how he engages with his creation. It could be these and many more hints in life that begin the search for him. You want to know, because you need to have an idea who is it behind these things.

It’s not to say we always want to get to know God, but there is something about God that still appeals. This is his grace. And it’s by this same grace that he draws us to find out more about him. He gives us his word and offers ways to understand what it’s saying. He gives his spirit to live inside that draws us to know him in different life circumstances. He gives us godly company who have walked the road of what it is to know him. These companions are great to guide us in getting to know God.

Getting to know God, however, is the original relationship that affects the inside and out. In prayer we call to him and makes himself known in various ways, and all of them illuminates  darkened areas of our life. Knowing God, however, is not an academic exercise. It is a practical one, it is a sensory one, it is one that affects every corner of your life. Your heart must be in it, or you miss some of the vital things he communicates with you.

This is not something that happens just by accident, or by happening to be in the right place at the right. This happens a lot by intentionally searching for God. It happens by purposing in your heart to keep on keeping on looking for him, knowing that those who search for him will find him when they search for all their heart.

That can happen to anyone, and it’s not automatic to church-goers or those raised in a Christian background.

It is also something eternally worthwhile.

For His Name’s Sake

Shalom

C. L. J. Dryden