Knowing vs. Knowing Of

There was a time when I thought that being a “good follower of Christ” meant memorizing scripture verbatim, or knowing every bit of Bible trivia and having instant recall of it.

And while it’s true that those things are important and useful in some cases (yes Bible trivia can be of some use), none of that ever got me any closer to the Lord, not really.

Why is that? I asked myself that question repeatedly for quite a while (some years) and after going through some battles where the enemy kept trying to convince me that the reason I wasn’t getting any closer to God is because He didn’t want anything to do with me – I finally came to an answer… It’s the difference between knowing and knowing of.

Let’s imagine for a moment that you are browsing one of the many personal ads or internet dating profiles out there. If you were to memorize the dating profile of someone you were interested in, you would know some things like their likes and dislikes, you would know some about their personality like what they find interesting, true.

Yet to you at that point it would still all be only intellectual head-knowledge. It’s only after spending real time with the person communicating with them and sharing between you that a real connection would be formed.

Much like in my past though, many people do not move beyond that first stage of just basically reading the profile of God in the Bible, and knowing Him only as words on a page without every really spending any time with Him.

They Know Of Him, but they do not Know Him!

The Lord desires to be known personally, by everyone, yet it is our duty to seek Him out. Deuteronomy 4:29-31 states the following:

“But if from thence thou shalt seek the LORD thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul.
When thou art in tribulation, and all these things are come upon thee, even in the latter days, if thou turn to the LORD thy God, and shalt be obedient unto his voice;(For the LORD thy God is a merciful God;) he will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers which he sware unto them.” 

Also Isaiah 55:6-7 adds the following, that it is both our duty and our urgent task to seek out a relationship with the Lord:

“Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near:
Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.” 

There will eventually come a day when the Lord can no longer be found or known. So it is important that we seek Him while there is still time.

Reach out to the Lord today; grab His hand while He is still holding it out. Know the true peace and joy that comes from knowing Him and not simply knowing of Him.