HE KNOWS YOU. DO YOU KNOW HIM?

Psalms 139:1 “O Lord, you have searched me and you know me.”

Dennis Wise spent his whole life collecting Elvis memorabilia. Elvis Presley was his hero. Dennis bought his clothes, records, photographs. He even underwent plastic surgery to try to look more like Elvis. But his great regret was that he never got to meet the man he adored.

A similar but greater tragedy with many Christians is that they spend years listening to sermons, reading scriptures, maybe even teaching Bible class, but they fail to enjoy a close relationship with God. And, if we’re not careful, we’ll end up like the Israelites in Hosea’s day that went through all the right motions, but they never really knew God.

We have managed to come up with this list of qualities about God -- he’s eternal, holy, all-loving, all-wise, omnipotent (all-powerful), omniscient (all-knowing), omni-present (everywhere at the same time). And we somehow come to the conclusion that if we understand all these qualities about God, then we know God. But that’s knowing about God and it doesn’t really apply to whether or not I know him.

In order to know God, we must be willing to commit our lives to following his will. John wrote, "Now by this we know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. He who says, ’I know him’, and does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him." (I John 2:3-4).

But even doing what God commands is no guarantee that we really know him. To the people of Israel long ago, God said through Hosea, "For I desire mercy and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings." (Hosea 6:6). You see, the people of Israel were going through all the right motions, but they didn’t really know God.

When it comes to knowing God, we have no right to demand that God, the Almighty God who brought this world into existence open himself up to us, to demand that God be on close and intimate terms with us. And yet that’s exactly what he has chosen to do. And I think that’s why God said through Jeremiah, "But let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows me." Because it’s a tremendous privilege to have the opportunity to know God.

But, again, we need to be careful lest we confuse knowing about God with knowing God. If you’ve ever been to a Christian college, it’s like going through a freshman survey class. You go through the Old Testament and you learn names and dates and events. What happened on the fifth day of creation, who were Moses’ parents, who was the second judge, what objects were in the ark, and so on? You come away from a class like that thinking that you know God, but you may never pause to ask, am I really growing closer to him?

To know God is not just to have an intellectual knowledge about God; it’s to have an intimate personal relationship with God, which is the most important relationship in our life. Be challenged to truly know the creator. Press in to a deep relationship and find true fulfillment.