by My father, my wife and I are all reading through the Bible together. My dad was a late addition and read ahead, but came back with some interesting questions / thoughts. One of them I’ve encountered in many
different ways, and it poses today’s post.
How much do we really love God? Where is He in the priority of our lives? Job could be relied on to love God for himself– not the things that he gave or took away. The Apostle Paul called knowing God the end
of His being. How do we truly love and submit to God– or anyone else for that matter?
It has to start with a keen desire to want to know all there is to know about the person. Reading through a book I was given when my wife and I were married about how to be the “Perfect Husband” the author used a passage in Peter that said that we are to dwell with our wife with all wisdom– meaning to find out about her, know her in and out. For the author, humorously, he said that he couldn’t even keep track of what soft drink his wife liked– but he said that was part of the adventure of growing in knowledge. We should get to a point where we can anticipate her thoughts and desires, and to provide them in our means.
To know God we must have a desire to know everything about Him– to anticipate His thoughts and desires. We must find pleasure in serving Him and making Him happy. We have to do things after His heart. I think this is what Tozer was getting at in the reading I had of his last night. He was talking about
organization being necessary, but that too much gets us away from God– we rely on it.
I know that, for me, it is easy to rely on the training in the Word that I have had and to fall into a pattern– kind of tying into Bible Study and the rich being able to rely on their money instead of on God. Where is our desire, Christian? Where is our yearning to know Him and to see Him pleased? We know He never changes, and that to deserve our worship He has to be “bigger than us”, so where is our desire?
I can only think that we need to be like Moses, who went from seeing the burning bush to seeing the glory of God– that we need to trust God with what He shows us, but get on our knees and ask for more– more desire, more of Him. It’s true that we get as much of Him as we ask for.
You know, we discussed this last night at church. It is funny that we discuss this days after you post this but reading this again brought new insight to me b/c of the discussion also. I question myself, “how much do I desire God?” I want to have a burning desire for him to where reading the word will never stop and to where i am constantly hungry for him and cannot go a day without speaking to him or reading his word or just sitting in his presence after all he is what this life is worth living for and he is what life is all about. He should always come first and if i want to know him i do have to seek him. When I want to know more about my husband I spend time with him and talk to him and listen to him, etc. I really need to do the same in my relationship with God. I hope this made some sense. Sometimes when I read something I get all excited and just want to post what is going through my thoughts at that time and sometimes they come out jumbled lol. 🙂
You’re right. It all begins with wanting to know the Lord. I’m sure you’ve been told the Bible is 66 love letters from God, and it’s been observed that a person who’s in love will read that love letter over and over. That’s how it is when we read God’s Words, we find meaning and meditate on it and we keep it in our heads all throughout the day.
I sometimes also fall under being somewhat ‘legalistic’ (maybe structured is a better word?) in my study, but even then, I’m still edified and amazed at His mercy. We just can’t go wrong praying and asking the Lord to reveal more to us– and us wanting to be nearer to Him.