"Knowing" God Takes Work, Devotion

Last post we talked about how we were created by God with purpose, protection, and also a sense of belonging. This post, however, will address the crummy reality of our current lives living in the "post-fall" world. While we are are still created with a purpose by God, protected by God, and with the desire to belong with other people, we now have to work for our knowledge of God. Let me be clear from the beginning, we do not work for our salvation - we are saved by grace, but we do have to work on our relationship with God. When you look at the relationship Adam had with God prior to the eating of the fruit in the garden, you'll notice an intimate an natural relationship where God and man conversed and walked together in the Garden of Eden.

This is in stark contrast, however, of the relationship Adam and Eve had with God after disobeying the one command God gave them. In reading Genesis 3:8, the immediate response of Adam and Eve upon eating the fruit and hearing God approaching was illogical: they hid from God. Immediately upon the fall of man, Adam and Eve lost some of their knowledge of God. They knew God as creator and omnipotent. They knew that he could not be hidden from, yet they panicked and hid from God, an action that made no sense at all.

Ephesians 4:18 says of mankind, "They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts." Because of our ignorance, we are darkened. We are not born with knowledge of God. Even as we grow up we lack an understanding and knowledge of the true God. We may know some things ABOUT God, but we don't know God. I know a lot ABOUT Tim Tebow, but if I walked up to him tomorrow and said "Hey Tim!" he'd look at me and ask, "Who are you?" Only until we place our faith in Christ can we truly know God, and even then, we have to work to understand Him more. It doesn't happen naturally or by osmosis.

What is my point? Too many Christians sit back and wonder why we don't understand our faith better, or we are lazy and figure salvation is enough for me so why bother trying to understand it better? Knowing God takes devotion, hence the term "devotions." We must be devoted in our study to better understand God. In order to do this, we must be "devoted" to reading our Bibles, and "devoted" to prayer. If you truly want to know God, you have to put in the work. This is a direct consequence of the fall of Adam and Eve. Before the fall, no work was necessary for man to know God. After the fall, the world in which we all live, we must work to know God better. Are you willing to put in the work?

-Pastor Adam