To Know Him

Often, we mistake the things we do “for Him” with “knowing Him.” Doing may be a part of the process but we can never do enough to really “know Him.” Knowing Him is a result of seeking Him. You may ask why should we have to seek Him when we already have Him? As God said in Proverbs 8:17, “I love them that love me; and those that seek me early shall find me.” He affirmed in Jeremiah 29:13, “And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.”

My wife and I have sought each other in thousands of ways over the past 45 years. Knowing the intricacy and intimacy of each other’s personality is a life long process. Just when I think I know her well, another part of her surfaces that I have not previously seen or understood.

No one remains static in life. We are continuously developing in personality. As we grow older, life and personality change. In some aspects we get more “fixed in our ways,” and in others we are developing and maturing. As we have grown in our lives and personalities, Norma and I continuously discover new aspects of each other’s life and personality to get to know. It is an enchanting and endless process.

So it is with the Father. We are all aware that He never changes. However, as we develop in that which we already know and the familiarity that we already have, new aspects of our life in Him emerges that we haven’t known before. We discover more of Him and more of ourselves. Consequently, our life in Him is a process of giving the “more of us” that we have discovered to the “more of Him” that He reveals.

To know Him is to love Him. Love changes and matures with familiarity. We thought we really loved each other on the day when we were married. We were all bubbly and entranced with each other and our new life together. Forty-five years later, the bubbles have largely dissipated but we love each other in a new and more definitive way. Walking together over these years has changed the character and depth of our love in a way that we couldn’t have known in those first years.

To know Him is to have confidence in Him. The confidence we have is not a “forced confidence” that we require ourselves to have, but rather a quiet confidence that tells us that “all is well” even when all of the outward indicators are that it isn’t. It is the kind of confidence that comes from companionship, fellowship of joy and of sorrow, trial and error, and unconditional acceptance.

To know Him is to seek His company. Although planned times of devotion are involved, there are the unscheduled times when we are suddenly aware that “He is there,” or those times when out of the burden or of the joy of our hearts we turn to Him. Often, when I am driving alone, on some of the long trips I make, I commune with Him. Conversation, while permitted in such times, is not necessary. We are content to be in each other’s company.

To know Him is to want to please Him. I love to do those little unexpected and unsought things for my wife that I know please her. I occasionally pick up a flower or a bouquet and bring it home to her unexpectedly. Sometimes I bring her a box of chocolates. Since I work at home when I am at home, I often wash the dishes, cook a meal, or do other things that make her life easier and promote her well being.

To please God is very simple but not necessarily easy. We simple believe Him in every circumstance, at all times. It brings joy to His heart. “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him” (Hebrews 11:6).

Jeff