Last week I began writing about knowing the Bible well.
When we have a greater depth of understanding of God’s word, He will produce in us a deeper understanding of who He is.
Why is it necessary to know God and His character? Why is it necessary to have that understanding be accurate?
Knowing God accurately deepens our relationship with Him. A relationship with God is the absolute greatest gift we can ever have. Everything in this life will one day be gone. As the saying goes, “we can’t take it with us”, so everything of this world is valueless when we compare it with a personal, living, vibrant relationship with God, through Jesus.
Additionally, I find that knowing God, based upon the Bible, produces discernment of truth for me as I traverse this life.
I know people who believe that God is only out to judge us and is mean. People, wrongly, attempt to extrapolate that view from their limited knowledge of God’s actions in the Old Testament. However, when you take time to do a serious study of the Old Testament, you find that God is loving, kind, merciful, and gracious to those who love Him. His judgment is there. It is necessary. We will see that wrath again in the final days of this world.
But God cares about people. He created us for fellowship. He created us to have a relationship with Him. He loves us. He demonstrated that through sending His only Son Jesus to this earth to be a living sacrifice for our sins. Jesus paid our penalty. These truths are embedded from Genesis to Revelation, but you need to spend time digging into and studying the Bible in order to understand these truths.
God is not against us, He is for us!!!
Jesus never puts His people down, but always desires to build us up. When we are feeling as if God is condemning us, betraying us, or not doing what we expect, knowledge of His character, from the Bible, helps us to center our thoughts on what is good, pure and true. We can approach the lies with truth.
Consider this verse: Jeremiah 29:11-12: “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.” This is a wonderful promise from God. It was initially directed to the Israelites, but it expresses the heart of God for those who love Him. How do we know we love Him? This verse gives us insight – God’s people will call upon Him, communicate with Him, and obey Him.
How about these common thoughts:
God helps those who help themselves. We cannot save ourselves. We cannot sanctify [become more like Jesus] ourselves, and we cannot even provide our own strength for what we need to do for the Lord, He provides it. God wants us to depend upon Him, He doesn’t want us to figure out our lives. He has it all worked out. We simply need to seek Him. Psalm 29:11: “The Lord gives strength to his people; the Lord blesses his people with peace.” Psalm 91:14-15: “Because he loves me,” says the LORD, “I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name. He will call on me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him.”
Money is the root of all evil. That is a misquote of 1 Timothy 6:6-10: “But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”
Cleanliness is next to Godliness. This leads us to believe that our outward appearance is what matters most to God. That is a lie. Consider 1 Samuel 16:7: “The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”
Many common thoughts are extrapolated from the Bible, the problem is that many are inaccurate. We must always depend upon what the Bible actually says.
Acts 17:11 points us to people who responsibly handled what they heard: “Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.”
As I have been doing the “Experiencing God” study by Henry Blackaby, I came across these points as to why it is critical that we know God accurately:
“God reveals Himself to increase faith that leads to action.” “What He shows you will be critical when you come to a crisis of belief.” Page 99 of the 12 lesson study workbook. [If you have never participated in this study, I highly recommend taking the time to participate with a few others. It will strengthen your relationship with the Lord.]
Blackaby goes on to give us several points on why we need to know the God of the Bible accurately. Each point relates to our relationship with Him.
Every day we are confronted with lies about God. Often they are subtle, and they are insidious. The only way to discern them from God’s word, is by knowing what the Bible says. I challenge you to be a committed and serious student of the Bible, to make this your lifelong daily endeavor. You will never regret it! Jeremiah 29:13 states: “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”
Please contact me at: ButGodCares@gmail.com if you want to discuss what it is to know Jesus.
Living for Jesus, Donna
P.S. If this has helped you, please feel free to share it with others!
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Copyright 2024 Donna Shappy All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means – electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other – without the prior permission of the author.