W3D1 Knowing

READ THE BIBLE

Philippians 3:7 (The Passion Translation)

Yet all of the accomplishments that I once took credit for, I’ve now forsaken them and I regard it all as nothing compared to the delight of experiencing Jesus Christ as my Lord! To truly know him meant letting go of everything from my past and throwing all my boasting on the garbage heap. It’s all like a pile of manure to me now, so that I may be enriched in the reality of knowing Jesus Christ and embrace him as Lord in all of his greatness. My passion is to be consumed with him and not clinging to my own “righteousness” based in keeping the written Law. My “righteousness” will be his, based on the faithfulness of Jesus Christ—the very righteousness that comes from God. And I continually long to know the wonders of Jesus more fully and to experience the overflowing power of his resurrection working in me.

REFLECT ON WHAT IT MEANS

In 2006, a book reviewer called Tim Chailles had read something interesting, and he wanted to find out if it were really true or not. So he set out to discover if the claims made in the book were true. What he read was this,

“Federal agents don’t learn to spot counterfeit money by studying the counterfeits. They study genuine bills until they master the look of the real thing. Then when they see the bogus money they recognise it.”

How was he going to find out whether or not this was true? Tim Chailles had a simple idea - he called the national bank and just asked them how they they trained their employees. The bank then invited him to come and see for himself! So he went and spent the day being shown how real money feels and looks. And guess what? It was true, that is how they train their agents! At the end of all this, they gave him a pile of mixed money to see if he could pick out the fakes. He was astonished when he found he could now also spot them!

The most import thing a true believer in Jesus can do is get to know God. Really get to know God... what he is like, how good he is towards us, what his ways and commands are like, what he wants from us, when he is speaking to us.

In the passage we read, the writer is the Apostle Paul. He tells us that his greatest desire in life, the thing that motivates him the most is, ‘to experience Jesus,’ (verse 7); to ‘truly know him,’ (verse 8); to be ‘enriched in the reality of knowing Jesus,’ (verse 8). Paul is being a great example to us. He tells us that his greatest desire is to know God and Jesus more and more.

In the Bible to know someone is not just to know something about them - like finding them up on social media. Rather, to know someone is to form a close, personal, face to face relationship with them. It can even mean to “marry” someone. That’s how closely and how personally the Bible uses this word. Paul wants to know Jesus, God’s Son, as someone real and close, as a true, personal friend.

How do we do that? How do we begin to get to know someone, personally, as a close friend? In simple terms, we spend all the time we can with them. Like the federal agents and the banknotes, the more time we spend with God, the more we will get to know who he is and what he is like.

In verse 9, the Apostle Paul says, “My passion is to be consumed with him.” This is not a boring activity, or a duty or something that he has to do for the sake of religion. For Paul, this is a passion, very much like a young man and a young woman falling in deeply in love. No one has to make them spend time together, they want to be together as much as possible. For them it’s exciting and something they want to do all the time. It’s the same when we get to know God.

Did you know that God loves you, dearly, deeply, constantly? Do you want to return that love to him by spending time with him in prayer, worship and being together with his people? It’s our decision, because God is already there waiting for us to get to know him.

RELATE IT TO YOUR LIFE

What would you do if you wanted to get to know someone better that you had just been introduced to? How could you take those same ideas and apply then so you could get to know God better?

RESPOND WITH A DECLARATION

“God loves me and wants me to get to know him personally and closely.”