Knowing God, Knowing Ourselves
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. (Ephesians 1:17, NIV)
Paul’s prayer in the opening chapter of Ephesians gives us insight into how spiritual growth takes place in our lives. Notice the goal of spiritual growth - “that you may know him better.”
Paul does not pray that God’s people would know more about him, although that is important. Understanding the attributes of God, such as his holiness, grace, mercy, sovereignty, and many others is an important part of getting to know God. There are some excellent books on the attributes of God. I recommend The Knowledge of the Holy by A.W. Tozer as an excellent starter.
But the goal of disciples of Jesus is to grow in a personal knowledge and relationship with God, our Father.
What does it mean to grow in an intimate relationship with God, the Father? It means that we can talk to him about anything and everything in our lives. We can confide in him. We can trust him to listen and love us in spite of our sin and weaknesses, our twisted thoughts and lives. We can whine and gripe to Him - I’m a champion whiner!
It also means something else that, I believe, is missing in the lives of many disciples of Christ in the church today: we can begin to see and hear God in the mundane everyday affairs of our lives. God has spoken to me through billboards along the highway, clerks at the grocery store and, my own thoughts as I run on the treadmill at the gym or sit quietly sipping my morning coffee.
If you would like to learn how to better recognize and hear God in your life, I highly recommend Dallas Willard’s book, Hearing God.
What I want you to understand is that knowing God, and growing in a relationship with him, means that we bring our whole selves to him. We hide nothing. (He sees it all anyway.)
And here’s the best part about it - As we stop pretending and hiding things from God, we stop pretending (to be somebody we’re not) and hiding things from ourselves. We become more self-aware. We grow more comfortable in our own skin, accepting ourselves as we are, but through God’s grace, seeking to become better people, better servants of Christ.
That’s what this Lenten season is all about - a time to seek a deeper relationship with the One who has made it all possible through His death and resurrection.
In Christ,
Dan