Tag: knowing God

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2 Peter Devotionals

To know God’s grace and peace

God's light breaking through

May grace and peace be multiplied to you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. (2 Peter 1:2)

I think all of us want God’s grace and peace in our lives.

And here Peter tells us how we can get these things.

It comes through a relationship with our Father and with Jesus. Not just knowing about them. But truly knowing them.

Because through that relationship, we have access to everything we need in life.

We have access to the power and wisdom we need to face life’s challenges and trials. To make our marriages work. To raise our kids. To heal our hurts. To forgive. To overcome the habits that are destroying us.

But most of all, to become more like our heavenly Father, being fruit and touching this world for him.

And as we see and experience all these things, God’s grace and peace are multiplied in our lives.

Do you want that in your life? I know I do.

I want to know You.
I want to hear Your voice.
I want to know You more.

I want to touch You.
I want to see Your face.
I want to know You more.” –Andy Park

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Matthew Devotionals

I know you!

Matthew

Master, I know you. (Matthew 25:24)

So said the evil servant in Jesus’ second parable. And yet, this servant didn’t know his master at all. His view of his master was totally distorted and so he really wanted nothing to do with him.

In the same way, many people today have a distorted view of God.

In particular, for many, they look at his commands, they look at his judgment of sin, and instead of saying God is good and just, they say, “If that’s the kind of God he is, I want nothing to do with him.”

There are also those who say they know God, but by their actions prove they don’t.

A person who truly knows God loves his people, and you see that in the parable of the sheep and the goats.

Jesus says when we bless his people, we bless him. (See also Matthew 10:40-42).

But when we ignore or mistreat them, we ignore or mistreat him. (See also Acts 9:4-5)

Perhaps John thought of Jesus’ parable as he wrote:

If anyone has this world’s goods and sees a fellow believer in need but withholds compassion from him—how does God’s love reside in him? (1 John 3:17)

Do we truly know God?

Do we truly believe he is good?

And do we love his people?

Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.

The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love. (1 John 4:7-8)

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Job

To truly know God

Job

I had heard rumors about You, but now my eyes have seen You. (Job 42:5)

I’ve been thinking about these words of Job recently, as I’ve been reflecting on what it means to truly know God.

Paul prayed in Colossians 1:10 that we would grow in our knowledge of God. But what does that mean?

It’s certainly not just head knowledge, important as that is.

It’s actually seeing his work in our lives. It’s actually hearing his voice as we read his Word, as we pray, and as we live our daily lives.

It’s experiencing his love, grace, and power firsthand in our lives, not just hearing about these things in the lives of other people.

Is that you? Do you truly know God?

May we all be able to say like Job, “I had heard rumors about you, but now my eyes have seen you.”

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1 John

If we truly know and love God

1 John

Jesus once said of false prophets,

By their fruit you will recognize them. (Matthew 7:16)

And while Jesus was specifically talking about false prophets, we can say the same of all those who claim to be Christians.

Many people claim to be followers of Christ. They claim to know and love God. But what does the fruit that comes out of their lives show?

The number one fruit that should come out of their lives is love.

And so John tells us,

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God.

Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. (1 John 4:7-8)

A few verses down, he says again,

Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. (11-12)

According to John then, what is the proof God lives in us and his love is complete in us? It’s that we love one another.

He then expands on this idea. After proclaiming that God sent his Son to be the Savior of the world, he shows us the natural outcome of coming to know this truth in our hearts. He says,

If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. (15-16)

That second part of verse 16 almost sounds as if our relationship with God depends on our ability to learn to love. But actually, it is the exact opposite. Because we live in God and God in us, we start to live in love. Why is that?

The reason is that if we truly understand what God has done for us, our whole way of thinking changes. We no longer live wondering about our self-worth. We no longer base our value on what others think of us.

Rather, we have full confidence in the love God has for us, and that confidence transforms our lives.

And that will also show on the day of judgment when we stand before God.

John tells us,

In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him.

There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. (17-18)

John then sums this all up by saying,

We love because he first loved us. (4:19)

For this reason, John tells us,

If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.

And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well. (1 John 4:20-21, 5:1)

“His child” seems to be referring not only to Jesus, God’s Son, but all of God’s children as well. In short, if we truly know and love God,we will also love his other children.

Is this saying then that if we struggle to love others in our lives that we are not Christians?

No.

Love is a fruit of our relationship with God. And like all fruit, it starts small and then grows. But as we grow deeper in our relationship with God and understand his love more fully, our love for others should grow as well.

More on this tomorrow.

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2 Chronicles 2 Kings Jeremiah

To know God

Kings,Chronicles, and Jeremiah

The last four kings after Josiah can all be basically painted bad.

Jehoahaz (known as Shallum in Jeremiah 22), Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah all were miserable failures as kings.

We’ll take a closer look at the latter three later, but God makes his comment on the first three kings in Jeremiah 22.

Basically, they were all more interested in themselves than in serving God or the people. They used their positions of power merely to enrich themselves while ignoring God and the needs of the people. And so God passes judgment on all three kings.

In doing so, he compares them to Josiah, saying,

“Does it make you a king to have more and more cedar? Did not your father have food and drink? He did what was right and just, so all went well with him. He defended the cause of the poor and needy, and so all went well. Is that not what it means to know me?” declares the Lord.

“But your eyes and your heart are set only on dishonest gain, on shedding innocent blood and on oppression and extortion.” (Jeremiah 22:15–17)

All of these men knew of God. They knew what he had done in the past. But they didn’t truly know him. And God makes crystal clear that knowing him doesn’t simply mean knowing about him.

To know God means to acknowledge him with our lives and with our actions. To do what is just and right, things that these kings simply did not do.

James put it this way,

Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds.

You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that — and shudder. (James 2:18–19)

How about you? Do you simply know about God? Do you simply believe that he exists? Or do your actions and your life show it?

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Jeremiah

Something to boast about

Jeremiah

This is what the LORD says:
“Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom
or the strong man boast of his strength
or the rich man boast of his riches,
but let him who boasts boast about this:
that he understands and knows me,
that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness,
justice and righteousness on earth,
for in these I delight,” (Jeremiah 9:23–24)

The people of Judah were boasting in their own wisdom and strength. Some even boasted that they were God’s people because they were circumcised.

But all these things were meaningless because they had turned their backs on God and were living their own way. And so judgment was about to fall on them.

What about you? What are you proud of? Your education? Your job? Your wealth? Your position? The things that you own?

They are all meaningless if you don’t know the Lord.

This doesn’t mean that we just know about God. Many people know about God. Satan knows more about God than probably any of us do. But do we truly know him?

Do we walk in close relationship with him, delighting in the things that he delights and despising the things he despises? Do we even know God well enough that we know what he delights in and despises?

To truly know God and what he’s like. Now that’s something to boast about.

And it’s a lifelong process. To not only know what he delights in and despises, but to have our minds transformed so that we delight in and despise the same things that he does.

How much time do we spend getting to know God? How much time do we spend with him every day? Is it a priority in our lives?

Paul wrote this,

I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things.

I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ – the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.

I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. (Philippians 3:8–11)

To know Jesus was Paul’s passion. Is it yours?