But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. (Ph 3:13-14)
Father, Please do not let me by so distracted by earthly pleasures that I fail to pursue you. And please do not let me use your grace as an excuse to cease pursuing you. I want you. And I want you even if that means difficulty.
Claude would not study. He would watch TV. He would stay up late at night and drink. He would sleep in during the day and skip class. But he would not do any work. For Claude, college life centered on having fun, and he did what he could to have his share of fun. I don’t even know what his major was, but I know this. He didn’t learn much about it. Claude lasted one year before he had to drop out.
When it comes to knowing God, this world is full of Claudes. We will spend all day studying chemistry and engineering or working a full time job. We will watch movies, surf social media, or listen to Spotify. We will go to basketball games, plays or concerts. But we will not work at knowing God.
Knowing God is hard work, and many people know little of God because they do not want to put in the commitment. You understand the principle. The athlete who never trains, never improves. No pain, no gain, we say. So it is with God.
Please don’t misunderstand. I’m not saying that our righteousness with God depends upon our work. Our righteousness is a matter of grace. Our effort does not earn us a place in heaven. Only our faith in the work of Christ can do that. But if we have real faith, we want to know God, and if we are to know God, we shall have to give Him our time and make Him a priority. It’s like a marriage. Imagine a husband and wife who lived separate lives and then complained that they didn’t really know one another. Kind of silly, isn’t it? You see, the business of marriage requires work. And commitment. And Scripture says that marriage is a picture of Christ and the church (Eph 5:32).
Listen. One of the biggest reasons why people do not know God is that they do not want to invest their life in knowing God. Our spiritual laziness limits what we can know. We do not want to work in the Scriptures, so we content ourselves with Scripture sound bites. We do not exert our souls in real prayer but content ourselves with the forms of prayer. We fall short of obedience because it can be strenuous.
If we are to learn of God we must commit to the Scriptures. The Bible is our primary source of information about God. If we ignore it, we will not know God. Many people who have never read the Bible think they know what it says. Or what it should say. And many who would call themselves Christians give the Bible just a cursory look. To learn from the Scriptures demands an open heart, diligence, discipline, persistence and a willingness to obey. As we work at understanding God’s truth, God rewards us; but if we take it easy in learning the Bible, God will take it easy in revealing Himself to us. Students of any book get out of it what they put into it. The Bible is no different. Many know little of God because they will not do the work of seeking Him in the Scriptures.
If we are to learn of God, we must pray with faith and urgency. Prayer is not a form letter. We must compose our communication fresh each time, even if we are praying for the same request for fifty years. Too many grind out form letters and think they are praying, but form letter praying does not teach us how to talk to God. Real prayer exerts great spiritual energy and is among the hardest work a soul can do. It requires the soul to focus and to do so sometimes amidst great spiritual opposition and distraction. Many never learn real prayer because form praying is so much easier. It gives all the packaging of prayer without the essence. We do not pray real prayers because often we are spiritually too lazy. We do not learn to listen to God because it takes work to be still. We do not learn to talk to God because we replace real talk with a list. We do not see the inner secrets and deep joys of God because we do not want to invest the energy to get close. Intimacy requires sacrifice.
If we are to learn of God, we must take obedience seriously. Obedience is not easy. When Jesus obeyed, He had nails driven through His hands and feet. God will ask you to do things you do not want to do. When He does, your response will take you in one of two directions on the path of knowing Him. You will go backward or forward. Many know little of God because they keep going backward when it is time to apply. They want to stay in the classroom and never go to the field. They want it easy, and because they want it easy, they limit what they can know.
God has given us abilities to know Him, but those abilities need to be used. If we choose not to pursue God, we will not know Him. If we choose to pursue Him half-heartedly, we will know Him half-heartedly. He who seeks finds. No one learns computer programming by watching football. What makes us think we will learn of God when we invest our time and efforts in other pursuits? Would you like to know God? Pursue Him. One of the great problems we have in knowing God is that we will not work at pursuing Him. We have these wonderful inherent capacities for discerning God but never use them for that end. It is like trying to pick up a radio station without turning on the radio. We are sometimes silly people.
