Know
How well do you know God? I think I know my wife Jeannie. I know she likes drinking Chai tea. I know she loves going for hikes. I know she enjoys her work in aged care. I know she likes sleeping on cool sheets. I know the relationships she keeps: her friends, the ones she regularly writes to, and her love for Jesus and her desire to follow God. But I wonder at times how much I know God!
Many times I reflect on what it means to be a godly person. Ever since as a 14 year old I surrendered my life to Christ, I have been wondering if I am useful to God. I have served congregations, planted churches, and been at pastoring for four decades. And I look for signs that I am really doing what God has called me to do. I preach sermons, teach lessons on faith and spirituality, coach up and coming church leaders, and for the past twelve years I have been trying to help churches engage in God's mission in this world. I truly desire to follow God and to be used by God. Yet sometimes I think all my busyness is my attempt to convince myself that I am godly.
A few weeks ago I spent some time with students at the RTC reflecting on Paul's words to faithful believers as recorded in Ephesians 1. Paul is praying for these believers and his prayer was that these men and women would get to know God better. He writes: "I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe." (Ephesians 1:17-19) The entire prayer is about these believers getting to know God better: knowing what God is really like, how he works, how he feels about you, what gives God joy and what incites his anger. Paul wants people to know everything God desires for people of faith: hope for the future, inherited riches, and his great power at work.
This prayer of Paul has changed my prayers for myself. Rather than asking God for proof that I am truly following him or being useful to him, I am asking myself whether I really know who God is. In my prayer life I am spending with God just to get to know him better. As I read his Word, attend worship, journey through life, and delve into good Christian literature I look for signs of God! I want to know God in the same way I know my wife Jeannie. It is all about the relationship. Knowing God is my pursuit. What is God really like? And what does God like in our relationship? I make that my aim: to know God better.
As churches we maintain that prayer is our number one task. This emphasis on prayer includes the idea that as Christ followers we want to "manifest the godly life". But this outward manifestation of the godly life, I am convinced, begins with knowing God better. Yes I want to manifest the godly life -- to see that for myself and allow others to see that in me as well: that I follow Jesus! But this does not begin with some self-reflection on how godly we are. It begins with us getting to know God better. And when we get to know God better, I trust that the rest will follow. More and more we will become godly, more and more like the One we have gotten to know.
About the author
Jack De Vries was hired on by the Christian Reformed Churches of Australia and began his work as Ministry Training Coordinator in January 2008. In 2012 this role shifted to that of Ministry Development Coach.
Jack came from Canada where he pastored three Christian Reformed churches: Alliston CRC, Alliston, Ontario(1983-87), a church plant: New Life Community Church, Pickering, Ontario(1987-95), and Bethel CRC, Listowel, Ontario (1995-2007). Jack is a graduate of Calvin Theological Seminary (Master of Divinity - 1983) and Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary (Doctor of Ministry - 2003) Jack and his wife Jeannie currently live in Petrie, a northern suburb of Brisbane in Queensland. They attend and are members of Bray Park Community Church. They have four adult children and seven grandchildren living in the USA and Canada.
In Isaiah 58:11 we read: "The LORD will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail." Australia has seen times of drought and floods. There is another type of drought in Australia; there is a spiritual drought. But God promises to provide refreshing rain, a never ending supply of refreshing water. The water he provides will satisfy the needs of all Australians. As we take up the missional vision God has given us we extend the life changing invitation of Jesus: "Come! Whoever is thirsty, come, and take the free gift of the water of life!" (Revelation 22:17)
