Oh, that we might know the LORD! Let us press on to know him! Then he will respond to us as surely as the arrival of dawn or the coming of rains in early spring.
That we might know the Lord… Does the idea of knowing God intimidate anyone else? Besides, how do we know God? Knowing God seems like an incredibly distant concept. Learning about God seems a bit easier, but knowing God? The idea of God responding to us? Where does it all begin?
The answer before the question
Christian Theology can help us move toward understanding with a doctrine called prevenient grace.
Prevenient means to come before; to precede. It has an air of expectation or anticipating of something coming. The basic theory behind prevenient grace is that God gives us what we most need, before we even know we need it and when we most certainly do not deserve it.
Our greatest need
So then, what do we most need?
Happiness? Health? Wisdom? Justice? Hope? Freedom?
Any of those answers could be argued, and those are all things we would like to have, but what is most needed is grace.
Grace is often overlooked and almost always taken for granted. It’s a very churchy word we are all somewhat familiar with. We see it from a distance and have a vague idea what it looks like. We know its general shape, and we are all comfortable with the concept of grace.
The problem with grace
Could that be our problem? Are we too comfortable with the concept of grace? Is it possible that in our comfort, we do not have a close up, painfully accurate view of what grace really is?
The prodigal son who returns to a father who accepts Him understands grace.
The spouse who is forgiven for infidelity understands grace.
The murderer who is pardoned understands grace.
The cancer patient who is healed understands grace.
But do we understand grace?
Enter the unworthy
You see, contrary to popular opinion, we are not owed anything. We do not deserve anything. We have no rights. Most of us continually struggle with the concept of how valuable we are. “I deserve…” and “I have the right to…” are both etched deeply within each one of our souls.
Understand, this does not mean we are unvaluable, we are simply unworthy.
The prerequisite to fully understanding grace however is seeing exactly how unworthy we are. The gift that is being offered us is only truly seen in the light of our unworthiness. We must come to a place of emptiness, where we see our depravity before we can ever appreciate the wonderful grace that is being offered. When we truly see how undeserving, how unworthy we are, then we can begin to see how amazing grace truly is.
The doorway to knowledge
So the very first part of grace is the ability to know God.
Before a sinful person can think a right thought toward God, they must first be enlightened by God. We can’t even seek God until God seeks us first to give us a desire to seek Him. The only reason we pursue God is because he first put an urge within us to chase after Him.
John 6:44
No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him…
OK, so God draws us, but we can’t find God unless He wants to be found, right? He’s God and I bet He’s really good at hide & seek. Or is He?
Playing hide & seek with God
My 3 year old son absolutely loves to play hide & seek. The only problem is He’s not very good at the hiding part. If you walk into the room he is hiding in and say “Isaac are you hiding?” he will quickly respond, “Yes!”. Its like clock-work, he gives away his location every time. As much as he enjoys the game he just isn’t very good at hiding.
Maybe God is a bit like Isaac. After all He tells us exactly where He is! Maybe we just aren’t so good at the seeking part.
Grace, knowledge, life
To summarize our journey so far, God puts a desire in our heart to pursue Him, we chase after Him and begin to walk with Him and begin to know Him…
Who should get the credit for us knowing God?
Is knowing God really that important?
Bernard of Clairvaux said, “There are two reasons for loving God: No one is more worthy of our love, and no one can return more in response to our love.”
Its almost as if in the Christian cliché that we live, we have almost completely forgotten that God is a person and that He is our father. We can only know Him and relate to Him in that context.
After all, the point of life is simply knowing God.
John 17:3
Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.
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inspired by Day One of The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer
