Do I really want to know God?

"Your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him" (Matthew 6:8). Then why should you ask? So that you may get to know Him (Oswald Chambers, Utmost for His Highest, April 27).

“So that you may get to know Him”…Have you ever prayed, “God, help me get to know you today”?  When I really think about it, I have to ask myself, this an honest prayer?  Do I really want to know God?  And what about these unbidden thoughts that come into my head: What calamity will hit me today?  What suffering must I endure for me to know God today?

While suffering is undeniably part of our human existence, thinking that I can only know God through suffering makes God out to be a vindictive sort of bad parent at best. If this is what I am thinking and feeling about God, I will always hold Him at arm’s length.  Going to the opposite extreme, some people want a soft, sentimental God that they can manipulate.  Neither description is worthy of God as He has revealed Himself in the scriptures and, frankly, in my experience of Him. 

Human language fails us when it comes to describing God. If I were to make a feeble attempt, one word stands out for me: Truth. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6).” When I think about “knowing God,” it is His truth that I need - truth about who He is, His love and what He has done for me through Christ Jesus. At the same time, His truth shines on me to reveal who I am. Instead of declaring me "guilty," His truth washes over me and frees me to become who He intends me to be.

Faith in His goodness and mercy enables me to pray this prayer, “God, help me get to know you today!”