Do you know what I know?
Or should it be do you know whom I know?
Knowing someone – it is one of those concepts that is hard to define but you “know” when you do. Most of the readers of this blog have never met me, but they may feel like they know me from having read a great number of my thoughts. In fact, a reader of this blog may know me better than someone who sees me every day. The person who sees me every day may know that I’m 6’3″, have blue eyes, walk fast, smile a lot, drive a silver Dodge Magnum, live in Fayetteville, Arkansas, like coffee black, etc., but no matter how many facts they may know about me, they may not really know me.
I could tell you that I’m married to a beautiful woman with green eyes, 5’7″, who likes her eggs over easy with toast, who was very shy as a child but learned to be a model, and a zillion other fun facts about her, but you still may not know her at all.
Paul often prayed for the churches in this way:
“I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.”
Generally speaking the people we truly get to know are those whom we love the most. We know our families, our spouses, our best friends. And knowing them doesn’t mean we know lots and lots of detailed facts about them. We may know these, simply as a result of spending time with them and trying to meet their needs and wants, but the relationship isn’t driven by knowing facts. It is driven by love.
Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
This is the failing of a Christianity that is driven more by a knowledge of the bible or a knowledge of theology and facts about God than by a relationship with, and a love for, God. You can know about God’s character and infinite qualities, as best as our finite minds can imagine, but never really know Him. You can memorize the entire bible and still not know God.
I know Tara because of hours, days, weeks and years spent with her, long conversations, praying together, and shared experiences. Our conversations involve talking and listening. We also share our emotional reactions to the fun, good, hard, and bad times we have lived through.
When was the last time you had a conversation with God? I don’t mean a time where you bowed your head and prayed through a list or when you talked through a bunch of “thank you’s” and prayer requests. I mean a conversation. Have you ever asked God what He thinks about you? What character qualities He most wants to work on in you right now? What pleases Him the most? To give you a hug? Any question at all, expecting (and receiving) an answer?
Do you know Him? Do you believe He wants to know you? Think on these verses from 1 Corinthians 8:
Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. The man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know. But the man who loves God is known by God.
May your love for God grow deeply, driving you to a greater knowledge and intimacy with the King of all kings, your husband, your friend, your lover, your Lord, your All in All.
