Know God
I am very excited to have Susan Allen share her heart with us this week! I know you will be blessed and encouraged.
“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
Those words resonated with me as I recently began a study of the book of Ephesians with my LifeGroup. Paul, imprisoned in Rome, wrote these words after 30 years of being a Christ-follower. He had taken multiple missionary trips and established churches all around the Mediterranean Sea, including the church at Ephesus.
Some background information on Ephesus, that will help us to understand these poignant words. Ephesus was a major metropolitan city in the Roman empire. It looked a lot like the city where we live, lots of commercialism, varying political views, and religions of all sorts existed.
Paul knew that the church had a lot of distractions, and things vying for their attention and time…just like we do. Paul deeply loved and cared about the church in Ephesus and he commends them for their faith in the Lord and for their love for God’s people. Paul shares his prayer for them. (Ephesians 1:17)
Paul could have prayed for just about anything for the church at Ephesus, including things like:
* To share Jesus more
* To serve Jesus more
* To give more
* To obey more
* To love more
All the above things are good things, but Paul prayed the BEST thing for these believers, “that
they may KNOW GOD better.” Some ways I have found to know God better are:
1. Be still.
That can be a scary thing to do for us. When we are still, we can come face to face with our inadequacies, our insufficiency, and the lies of the enemy that tells us that we are not enough. So we must stay busy to be in good standing with God. I can get so caught up in my schedule, to-do list and calendar that I totally miss God. If I am going to know God, I must leave margin in my life for Him. If you want to get to know someone you have to spend time with them, there is no shortcut. The same holds true for God. Often, I’m guilty about reading wonderful books about God in lieu of taking in His wonder just by being still and observing Him around me.
“Be still and know that I am God.” ~ Psalms 46:10
2. Look for Him.
God has given us a beautiful picture of who He is in His Word. Who is He?
What does He love? What are His character traits? What hurts His heart? What brings joy to Him? Just like you have studied your boyfriend, spouse, children or grandchildren, we must study God.
In his work, “For Self Examination”, Soren Kierkegaard, explores two methods of interacting with scripture. One involves study and commentaries and precise translations. The second is more intimate, more personal.
Kierkegaard writes:
“Think of a lover who has received a letter from her beloved, as precious as this letter is to the lover, just so precious to thee, I assume, is God’s Word; in the way the lover reads this letter, just so, I assume, dost thou read God’s Word.”
I used to receive several letters a week from Tom, my then fiancé. We lived a couple of hours apart and only saw each other on the weekends. This was before cell phones, before email, yes right after the Pony Express. I COULD NOT WAIT to read these letters! He would express his love for me, tell me about how much he missed me and how he dreamed about the day we were husband and wife. His words on the paper connected my heart to his and caused me to love him more.
To read God’s Word as if the One you love has revealed His heart for you, His passions, His emotions, and His love for you is the more personal way to read it because that is exactly what He has done. God has made Himself vulnerable in scripture.
JL Gerhardt writes in her book “Look to Love” :
”In the Bible God reveals the details of His past relationships-who He’s loved, who loved Him back, who didn’t, how they hurt Him, how it felt. In the Bible, God shows us what He’s proud of, the things He’s made, the truths He holds most dear. He tells us what He wants for the future. He tells us what disappoints Him and what breaks His heart.”
If you want to know God better, you must spend time looking for Him in the beautiful love letter He has written.
“Since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities-his eternal power and divine nature-have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse”
~ Romans 1:19-20
3. Talk to Him.
Can you imagine what life would be like living with someone, but rarely talking to them? Yet, day in and day out we do this with our Heavenly Father. He longs to hear our voice. For us to share our concerns, victories, failures, hopes, passions, needs, strengths, weaknesses, etc. You may not know what to say, He just wants to hear from the one He loves. It may begin by just calling His name, Jesus. The better you know Him, the more you will have to talk to Him about and He’s always waiting to hear your voice.
“Because he bends down to listen, I will pray as long as I have breath.” ~ Psalm 116:2
“Be merciful to me, O Lord, for I am calling on you constantly” ~ Psalm 86:3
My prayer for you, is just like Paul’s, I pray that in this busy life with lots of distractions, that you would make margin in your life to observe the wonder of God and know Him, that you would read the beautiful love letter He has written just for you and look for Him in every word. As He bends down with His ear to your voice, may you share your life and love with Him that you may know Him better.
Thank you Susan, for the great reminder of God’s love for us and His desire to have a relationship with us.
We pray that you will know the depth of God’s fierce love for you!
Have an amazing day!
~ Jodi xo
Susan is married to Tom and they have 4 amazing adult children, and she is Yaya to 13 awesome grandkids. Tom is the lead and founding pastor of Crosspoint Church in Pearland, Texas. Susan is currently a realtor with Stanfield Properties and runs the James 1:27 ministry, which helps widows in practical ways. In her spare time, she loves cooking and entertaining family and friends in her home, cheering on her Baylor Bears and traveling to see the beautiful world God has created…the mountains are her favorite.
Never miss a blog by signing up for the email below. xo