Knowing God
What is greater, more desirable, than knowing God?
For millennia humans have wrestled with the question of knowing God. We have debated, expounded, argued, postulated, philosophied and even went to war over the subject of knowing God. Some say that we can’t know God. Others say there is no God to know. There is a never ending line of intellectuals, theologians and philosophers propagating their truth on the subject of knowing God. Some say they know God. Others say everyone else knows the wrong God. None of them seem to know anything about knowing God.
The question of knowing God has been, and continues to be, a major influence on people.
Right here is a good time for me to raise my hand and inform you that I know very little about knowing God. I have certainly tried to know God, but, frankly, I know that I have an extremely limited understanding of Him. I know that He loves me. I count on that daily! But let me get back on topic…
Regardless of your position on God. Regardless of whether you believe He exists or not. Even if you don’t care. The question of knowing God has been, and continues to be, a major influence on people. The religious establishment has self proclaimed knowledge, even elite understanding, of God. They proclaim authority on knowing God, and based on this authority these religious elites feel empowered to dictate to the rest of us the only ways that we can know God. But the religious elites are so often wrong, particularly when it comes to relating to God. This is what got Jesus so riled up about the pharisees. In their pomp and circumstance, the religious leaders of Jesus’ times had lost any ability to know God. Instead of teaching people how to know God, their foolishness caused people to weary under religious burdens and left the people bewildered and confused about who God was (is) and whether or not He loved (loves) them. I fear that our religious leaders are no different today, and people are just as lost as ever on knowing God.
Of course, if the religious elite cannot help us know God, certainly we can turn to science. Ha! The only problem with science is that it relies on humans to report it. If anyone can screw up a completely objective, totally unbiased discipline, as science is intended to be, it is a human. We have ideas to promote and agendas to support. Science run by humans will not point us to knowing God. In fact, even with scientific truths that are as plain as the nose on one’s face, humans still have the ability to skew the results and subject-ify the evidence to support a particular position.
But there is something guaranteed to bring us to the knowledge of God. According to Solomon’s second proverb, to “understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God” we need to “cry aloud for understanding”. We need to desire knowledge and search for it as we would a “hidden treasure.” The knowledge of God is available to us, and it is not that hard to obtain. But it requires a sincere, heart’s desire to get it. How can we be sure that simply seeking after knowledge and understanding will help us know God? Because in this way alone is the response, and therefore the result, solely dependent on God.
If we rely on our religious leaders, politicians, scientists or philosophers to show us God, we are relying on humans. But when our desire is toward God and we seek with an honest craving to know our Heavenly Father, our desire will be answered. A few bible verses to support this:
What father will refrain from giving good gifts to his children when they ask? As Jesus points out, “If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him!” Knowing God is actually pretty simple, but it has to start with a true heart's desire, greater than any other desire in one’s life. When we truly desire to know the Lord, He shows us His heart and reveals to us the depth of His love for us. In truth, that is all we really need to know.