How Can I Know God Personally?
1. What does it mean to know God?
Knowing God in many ways is like knowing another person, because God is a Personal Being. We begin by meeting each other, but meeting God cannot be accidental or on our terms. We must be intentional and sincere. God says, "You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart"-Jeremiah 29:13. God isn't playing hard to get, but we all know that any meaningful relationship is built on sincerely pursuing each other. So if you want to know God, he invites you to be genuine in your desire and pursuit. This is essentially what it means to become a Christian - moving from knowing about God distantly to knowing him directly and intimately. Jesus Christ says, "Now this is eternal life; that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent"- John 17:3.
2. Is it possible that not knowing God and having peace with him is the deep void you sense in your life?
Our desire to personally know God and have peace with him is strong in each of us, but we usually fail to recognize this desire for what it is. When we first fall in love, when we at last realize some dream, when we find a life-partner, these experiences arouse in us anticipation of something which, as it turns out, never fully satisfies. We eventually discover that our desire for that precious something is a longing no lover or achievement or career, even the best possible ones, can ever satisfy. Our contentment fades even as we close our fingers around what we want. Nothing delivers the joy and satisfaction it seemed to promise. Many of us learn to avoid this emptiness through busyness or denial or endlessly chasing another pursuit, but at best our thirst is only temporarily quenched.
There are several ways we may respond to our unfulfilled desire:
We may blame the things themselves. We find fault in others or our circumstances. We believe that a better lover, a better job, a better boss or pay would finally yield the elusive joy we are looking for. Many of the most successful people of the world are like this - bored, discontented, running from new thing to new thing, often changing mates, jobs, settings.
We may blame ourselves. Many people believe they have made poor choices or have failed to measure up to challenges in order to achieve the things that would give them joy and satisfaction, so we try harder to live up to our expectations. Such people are wracked with self-doubts and tend to burn themselves out. They think, "If only I could reach my goals, then this emptiness would be gone." But it is not so.
We may blame the universe itself. We give up the dream of finding any real fulfillment at all. This is the person who says, "I have learned not to be so idealistic, I have stopped howling after the moon." We become cynical and decide to repress that part of ourselves which once wanted fulfillment and joy. We feel ourselves losing our humanity and compassion.
We may be honest and recognize our deepest need in life. We admit that we are made by and for our Creator. Because we have gone our own way we have lost the most significant relationship we were created for, a personal, reconciled relationship with God.
The sincere seeker says: "Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exists. A baby feels hunger; well there is such a thing as food. A duckling wants to swim; well there is such a thing as water. Men feel sexual desire; well, there is such a thing as sex. If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. If none of my earthly pleasures satisfy it that does not mean that the universe is a fraud. Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing." CS Lewis
3. How may I come to know God and have peace with him?
To enter into a new, reconciled relationship with God, you must come to believe and respond to three realities:
4. The First Reality-Who We Actually Are:
God's creation-God uniquely created us to have a personal relationship with him and to find our deepest satisfaction in him. Therefore, we will be most satisfied only when we find our greatest pleasure and love in God. Sadly though, we think that other things in this world will give our lives meaning and fulfillment.
A Rebellious Sinner-We have all chosen (and reaffirm daily) to reject God and to make other things our joy and happiness. We do not honor God as our Creator, even though we have been made to love and worship him. So we substitute God with idols, centering our lives on things that promise to give us meaning like success, relationships, influence, love, comfort, and so on.
In spiritual bondage-To live for anything other than God leads to breakdown and decay. When a fish leaves the water for which it is made, it is not free, but dies. The same is true for us. Searching for meaning and satisfaction in things other than God leads to a deep void and death. Nevertheless, we continue to pursue the things which cannot deliver satisfaction. So the decay we experience leads to things like self-image problems. We end up defining ourselves in terms of what we have or accomplish. We think that we must have these things or all is lost, so they drive us to work too hard. We are also
filled with fear or anger if they are jeopardized.
5. The Second Reality-Who God Actually Is:
God is over all and is both just and loving- God cannot deny himself so it is his place to be honored above all, yet his love leads to an active concern for your joy and well-being. So while God is working all things for his glory he also directs all things for the good of those he has created. This moves God to hate what is wrong and love what is good. He cannot be indifferent. "The more you love your son, the more you hate in him the liar, the drunkard, the traitor." (E. Gifford). To imagine God's situation think of a righteous judge who is also a loving father, who sits at the trial of his guilty son. He knows that upholding justice is best for his son, for without appreciating what is right and good no person or society will survive. How much less can a righteous and loving God merely ignore justice toward us who are guilty of rebellion against his supremacy and his desire for our good?
Jesus Christ- Jesus Christ is God the Son who came to earth. He took on our flesh to reveal who God truly is and to win our salvation. He did so by loving God the Father with all his heart, soul, and mind, fulfilling all that God requires of us. He lived the life we owe to God. Then Jesus gave his life on a cross as a perfect sacrifice to pay for our sins, taking on himself God's wrath against our sin which each of us deserves. Three days later he was raised from the dead as proof that all he claimed and did is true. Now Jesus offers his life and sacrifice as a substitute to God for anyone who would receive him. So through Jesus Christ you may receive the gift of a full payment for your sins and a perfect righteousness to stand before a holy God. God in his grace will accept his Son's sacrifice on your behalf. Nothing else satisfies his righteousness.
6. The Third Reality-What God Says I Must Do To Be Right With Him
Repent - Now God is calling you to respond. To be made right with God you must admit that you have been living as your own master, worshipping the wrong things, even rejecting God's love for you. "To repent" means you have a change of heart and turn from a stance of sinful rebellion against God to live for his honor. You realize and accept that God alone is your Creator and the great lover of your soul.
Believe - Faith is transferring your trust from your own efforts to be made right with God to the efforts of Jesus Christ. If you have denied the seriousness of your sin before God and have been relying on your own deeds to make you acceptable before him, this will not do. God is clear that "there is none righteous, not even one"-Romans 3:10. When you believe what God says, you consciously begin to rely on what
Jesus did for your forgiveness and acceptance with God. This transfer of trust is what God requires-Romans 3:21-24. But if you think, "God owes me something for all my efforts," you fail to realize your own sinfulness and how far short you fall to God's holiness.
Pray with a sincere heart - You may be reconciled to God right now if you believe what God has said. Pray to him in this manner: "Lord God, I see I am more flawed and sinful than I ever dared to believe. I also see that I am more loved than I ever dared to hope. I now turn from my old way of living for myself. I have nothing to merit your approval, but I now trust in Jesus Christ's payment for my sin and ask to be forgiven so that I may have peace with you again. I now accept your offer of forgiveness and a new relationship with you through your Son, Jesus Christ."
When you decide to take this step by faith, God says several things happen at once:
1) Your sins are washed away permanently and God counts Jesus Christ's righteousness to you. 2 Corinthians 5:21.
2) God the Spirit creates in you a new heart and comes to live inside of you. Romans 8:1-11
3) You are no longer God's enemy, but because he forgives you, he then adopts you as his child. John 1:12
Follow through-Tell a Christian friend if you have prayed and made this decision. Grow in your new relationship with God by pursuing some teaching at a local church in the basic Christian disciplines of prayer, worship, Bible study, and fellowship with other Christians. You may contact our church office at (717) 541-0400, ext.112 and we will be glad to help you. Consider reading: Go For It by John Guest or Growing in Grace by Bob George. Both are good books for growing in your Christian life.
7. How must I come to God?
At different times you may have felt like you "need" God. Even though you may recognize that you have needs only God can meet, you must not try to use Him to achieve your own ends. It is not possible to bargain with God, "I'll do this if you will do that." This is not what becoming a Christian is at all, but is a form of magic or paganism in which you "appease" a cranky deity in exchange for a favor. Are you seeking to be reconciled to God to love Him, or to get God to love you? These are two opposite motives and they result in two different religions. You must come to God because:
1) You owe him your life. He is your Creator.
2) You are deeply grateful to him for sending his Son to die in your place. He is your Redeemer and Salvation.
On the other hand, you may feel no need or interest to know God at all. This does not mean you may easily dismiss this pursuit. You may say, "I have no faith in what I cannot see." This is no excuse either. God has made himself known through the things that have been made. Creation cries out that there is a God with eternal power and a divine nature who deserves to be loved and worshipped. Not only this, but God has also revealed himself through history, especially through the person of Jesus Christ. His life, death, and historical resurrection confront us with verifiable evidence of the reality of one true God.
So there is no excuse to not seriously seek God until you are right with him. Does not the void within you as well tell you that something very important is missing in your life? One day you will die and what is real will be left to no doubt, but then it will be too late. God says, this will be the day of judgment. (Hebrews 9:27.) So take the next step.
8. What if I am not ready to decide?
Make a list of the issues that you perceive to be barriers to crossing the line of faith in what is real. Here is a possible set of issues:
Content issues. Do you understand the basics of the Christian faith? God is my Creator; Sin has separated me from God; Jesus Christ is God the Son; Only his sacrifice can make me acceptable before God; Turning to believe what is true will change my relationship with God.
Coherence issues. Are there intellectual
problems you have with Christianity, objections
to the Christian faith that you cannot resolve in
your own mind?
Cost issues. Do you perceive that a move into authentic Christian faith will cost you dearly? Those who have taken this step have found that what they gain is far more wonderful than what they lose.
Now talk to a Christian friend and pray until these issues are resolved. If you do not know who you may talk to we would be glad to have you contact us (717) 541-0400, ext.112. But don't put this off. Whether or not you know God and have peace with Him matters a great deal now and for all eternity.
