How do we begin knowing God? Biblical theology teaches the doctrine of prevenient grace (before a man can seek God, God must first have sought the man.) Jesus said, ‘No man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him.”
Dan Dehaan writes: God longed to create man to appreciate Him. God created people to know Him. .. to enjoy Him. God put in men’s hearts the “god-shaped vacuum” that could only be filled with Himself. Why did God create us? To fellowship with us. Why did Christ come to earth? To restore broken fellowship.”
However, our response to His prevenient grace is not to resist Him but to aggressively pursue intimacy with Him. Hebrews 11:6 tells us that God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
For self evaluation it would be wise to classify your quest for knowing God.
1. I’m not a follower of Christ but I’m seeking and considering
2. I’m a Christian, but my diligence in seeking God is lacking
3. I’m hot and cold. I muster up discipline to read the Bible for a while, then I slack off. No consistency.
4. I have trouble seeking God in my disturbing circumstances.
5. I’m usually disciplined in diligently seeking God but I yearn for a deeper intimacy with Him.
6. I don’t care about seeking God.
Which applies to you and me?
God is a rewarder of those who DILIGENTLY seek Him. Complacency is not part of the game- plan in knowing God. As children of God we already have relationship with Him. Now our challenge is to develop fellowship with God. Developing intimacy with Abba Father. Augustine so aptly stated about God, “Thou hast made us for thyself and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in thee.”
And I may add, even in "rest in thee" there still is a holy discontent....I want more! How about you?
1 comment:
Some people have an Idea that God is inclusive for mans eternal destiny, that all religions and all people will be saved. That God will allow all of mankind to enter into heaven because everybody is good so God must be fair and include everyone! It is true God does love the whole world but God is exclusive about mans eternal destiny without the Savior. To keep this simple man has a problem called sin in which man refuses to believe that there are eternal consequences for having sin, which is a one way ticket to hell. God is holy and he will not allow anyone with sin to enter into heaven. God is hurt and angry about our sin, we have broken his laws. But God is just and good and he knows our need so he provided a solution to our problem. His solution to our problem is to have our sins removed by having our sins placed on someone else, a sacrifice for us; paying for the penalty of the sin we have in our lives. So that someone else would get the penalty of Gods wrath and separation on him that was meant for us. So God sent his son Jesus on a mission from heaven to earth as our sacrifice to die on the cross on our behalf after this happened three days later Jesus came back from the dead, alive. But that’s not all remember I wrote that God is exclusive about mans eternal destiny without the Savior? The only way that Gods promise can be applied to your life is for you to turn from your way of thinking and know that your sin offends and hurts God and call on the Lord Jesus who’s alive to save you. Your sins are then transferred to Jesus for what he did at the cross, dying and being abandon by God because of your sins, for you and because Jesus arose from the dead he is alive you can now enter into a relationship with God. Will you call out to Jesus to save you? It’s your choice to enter in exclusively with God’s grace for you. Where will you want to spend eternity after hearing Gods promise for you?
If the answer was yes that you do want Jesus as your sin bearer, Savior, and you do believe God raised Jesus from the dead you can pray with your voice.
“Dear Lord Jesus save me.”
Acts 20:21 Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance towards God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
http://www.shipwrecksoul.blogspot.com
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