Wednesday, September 30, 2020

Abounding Grace: Knowing God

But as you abound in everything—in faith, in utterance, in knowledge, in all diligence, and in your love to us—see that you abound in this grace also. 2 Corinthians 8:7 MEV

You do well and excel in every respect—in unstoppable faith, in powerful preaching, in revelation knowledge, in your passionate devotion, and in sharing the love we have shown to you. So make sure that you also excel in grace-filled generosity. 2 Corinthians 8:7 TPT

  We've been in a study examining the great Grace of God. We are looking at how this Grace abounds in all areas of our lives. So far we've seen how this Grace abounds towards our Faith, strengthening and empowering it. We've seen how this Grace makes our speech more effectual and dynamic in blessing and loving others.

 Today, we want to see how this Grace abounds to our knowledge. That is, Grace abounding to our knowledge of God. Knowing God is something the Father longs for. God our Good Father desires for His children to know Him more and more. 

But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be glory, both now and forever. Amen. 2 Peter 3:18 MEV

 God wants us to know Him. Religion and traditions of men make that rather difficult. The enemy looks for ways to prevent the people of God from becoming more intimate with their Father in Heaven. That's why this Grace abounds more and more so we can know Him.

 Just look back at Genesis. When Adam and Eve fell, they hid from God. Why? Fear, worry, shame, and condemnation from the enemy were working overtime to keep them away from God's presence. The enemy wanted them to be disconnected from God. Yet God sought them out, that's Grace!

 When the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they refused to go up to the mountain. They wanted Moses to go but they were afraid to go. They drew back. They didn't press in. Why? Again, fear. Fear that they would be wiped out, killed by God's wrath. They didn't know God. 

 God wants us to know Him. Look in the Old Testament, we see the various names of God recorded. Names such as Jehovah Jireh. The Lord who sees or provides. Jehovah Nissi, the Lord our banner or victory, His banner over us is Love. Jehovah Rapha, the Lord who heals you. 

 There are many other names. Why did God do this? He wanted the people to know who He is. 

 God is a Good Father. He longs for and strongly desires for His people to know Him in all His goodness. To see Him in His great Love. To know and experience His mercy, Grace, goodness, and unconditional Love. 

 The Father wants an intimate relationship with His people. This begins by knowing who He is. It begins when we see Him in all His goodness. It begins when we know and understand how He sees us. When we know how much He loves us and how flawless He sees us in Christ, our intimacy with the Father grows, and our relationship with God grows sweeter and sweeter as the days go on.

 God wants us to know He is a Good Father. He is not the author of our tragedy. He isn't the one orchestrating our losses or hardships. He is not the designer of our detriment or any earthly disaster. Knowing God isn't the creator of our difficulty or the one ordaining death, disease, or destruction, we won't run from Him, but rather we run to Him to find refuge, help, and hope in times of trial or temptation. 

 God wants us to know He isn't holding our sins and shortcomings against us. He is the One who bore the full penalty of our sins on the Cross. When we trusted in Christ, He forgave us of all our sins. He made us perfectly Righteous, accepted, and approved of our Good Father. We can come to Him even when we fail because we know He has hope and restoration for us. We can rest in Him, knowing He has forgiven us once for all time and isn't holding anything to our account.

 God wants us to know He is our healer. He wants us to know He isn't the author of any sickness or disease. God is the One who heals you. It's His perfect will that you be healed and made whole. We can come to Him and receive without doubt or unbelief. He is Good!

 God wants us to know who He is. We get to know this Good Father by studying His Word. We study the Word in context. We study the Word by rightly dividing between the Old Covenant and the New. 

 We get to know this Good God by spending time in prayer. Think about it. God the Creator wants to spend time with you. He desires intimate fellowship with you. We can spend time with Him in prayer any time throughout the day. 

 In summation, this Grace abounds to our knowledge. Grace reveals the true nature and character of our Good Daddy God. Return to Him in intimacy. He longs to fellowship with you. Turn off the media, tune out the social media, put the electronic device down. Spend a few minutes with the Father. Your life will be incredibly blessed more and more as you do this consistently. You will find your joy increasing and worry and stress and anxiety decreasing. God is a Good God!


Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay 

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