Apr 15 Devotion: Knowing God Through Jesus

6.  Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God?  shall I come before him with burnt-offerings, with calves of a year old?  7).  Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil?  shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?  8).  He hath shewed me, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?

                                      MICAH 6:6-8 (KJV) 

There’s a simple message from God that is repeated over and over throughout Scripture: He delights far more in our efforts to grow closer to Him than in any gift we might offer Him. God wants to be in relationship with us, so seeking Him expresses our love better than words ever could.

It’s a great privilege to personally know God, and the first step of this blessing is to receive His free gift of new life through Christ. Our sin formed a chasm between us and God, but Jesus—our mediator—spanned that gap, eliminating the separation. Through His death on the cross, He made it possible for us to become God’s children (See GALATIANS 4:4-5). So it’s impossible to truly know the Father apart from knowing Jesus. What’s more, when we trust in Christ, we also get to know God’s Holy Spirit, who comes to live within us permanently to guide, teach, and comfort.

To further take hold of the privilege Jesus has afforded us—that of knowing the Father—we should be interested in what interests Him. By looking carefully for His way of doing things, we can come to understand what He deems important.

What a blessing it is to share God’s heart for the world and be involved every day with what He’s doing all around us!--

-IBC