Missing the Point?

Many of us enjoy reading biographies and getting to know the details of various historical events. We’re aware that the people we read about are not personal acquaintances of ours. We know a fair bit about them without actually knowing them.

This is no great problem until we come to the matter of actually knowing God. Many of the learned biblical scholars of Jesus’ day knew a lot about the scriptures. They knew intricate details and engaged in profound debates about what it all meant.

Especially, they got stuck on the subject of the coming Messiah. Only problem was that they didn’t recognise that Messiah when they were staring Him in the face. These experts knew a lot about the promised Messiah, but when He came, He didn’t quite fit their expectations, and so they rejected Him as a fraud.

Only a faith and trust relationship with Jesus can bring us into a personal relationship with Him.

All this is a reminder to us that we can bury our noses in the Bible and miss the whole point of it. We can engage in robust debate about the nature of God and have no relationship with Him. There’s a great difference between knowing about God and truly knowing Him personally. Lots of study and research can help us know about God. Only faith and trust relationship with Jesus can bring us into a personal relationship with Him.

Just as we can’t barge into the Prime Minister’s Lodge without an invitation, so we can’t get into God’s presence without an invitation. The good news is that Jesus offers us an invitation and, in doing so, helps us go beyond mere knowledge to a loving personal friendship.

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Devotion written by David Reay

Originally published as Knowing God – Getting personal

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