Real Help

God desires to know you—and for you to know Him. “I will live in them and walk among them. I will be their God, and they will be my people,” He said in 2 Corinthians 6:16. And again in Hebrews 8:10, “This is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel on that day, says the Lord: I will put my laws in their minds, and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.”

In fact, this is a recurring theme—starting in Genesis—that appears dozens of times throughout Scripture. God wants to know you and for you to know Him!

• Fulfilment in Jesus

  This deep desire from the Father is fulfiled in Jesus. It’s through Him that we can get to know the Father personally. We’ve been invited to know Jesus and, by extension, our Father God. What a privilege!

  Jesus confirmed, “My Father has entrusted everything to me. No one truly knows the Son except the Father, and no one truly knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him” (Matthew 11:27).

  The connection is so strong, when the Pharisees asked Jesus about the Father, He sharply answered, “Since you don’t know who I am, you don’t know who my Father is. If you knew me, you would also know my Father” (John 8:19).

• Knowing Jesus

  There’s nothing quite like knowing Jesus! When you become a Christian, Jesus spiritually bonds with you. He comes into you, and you enter into Him. As you get to know Him more and more each day, you draw closer, and find life more and more fulfiling and rich.

  You get to know Jesus through His Word, His works, prayer and even other believers. “At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view,” wrote the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 5:16. “How differently we know him now!”

  There’s another key way to know Jesus—and that’s through obedience.

• Walking in Obedience

  “If you love me,” said Jesus, “keep my commands” (John 14:15, NIV).

  Throughout Scripture, obedience is closely linked to knowing the Lord intimately. Noah “walked in close fellowship” with God (Genesis 6:9). Enoch did too (Genesis 5:24). So did Adam (Genesis 3:8)—and that fellowship was only broken when Adam disobeyed the Lord. Scripture is jam-packed with examples of regular people who, unlike the rest of their culture, chose to obey God and got to know Him,. When they did, they placed themselves in a place of great blessing (Luke 11:28, Exodus 19:5, James 1:25). When they didn’t, they had to fend for life on their own (Joshua 5:6).

  That’s why it’s imperative that as believers who love the Lord, we do what He commands! And there’s no better guide to knowing what His commands are than by reading His Word. Genesis to Revelation is full of God’s will and instructions for His people. As you dig into God’s Word and prayer, He will reveal Himself to you, and you will want to be obedient.

• Love One Another

  Second John 1:6 takes the call to obedience a step further.

  “Love means doing what God has commanded us,” wrote the Apostle John in 2 John 1:6, “and he has commanded us to love one another, just as you heard from the beginning” (emphasis added).

  Knowing God and obeying His voice doesn’t stop with reading His Word and spending time in prayer. If we want to truly know God, we must choose to love our brothers and sisters in Christ. We must love one another—just as He has loved us.

  Loving one another means walking in love in all we do (1 Corinthians 13). It means being patient and kind, not jealous, boastful, proud or rude. It means not being irritable, demanding our own way or rejoicing over injustice. “Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance” (1 Corinthians 13:7).

If you want to know God, get to know Jesus today through the Word and prayer, and by loving others. As you do, you’ll find your relationship with Him skyrocket to new heights. And the Lord will love that…because He wants to know you and have you know Him!