Devotionals: Knowing God Archives

The Obedience of Faith

By Andrew YoungJuly 20, 2017Devotionals: Knowing God

“Faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” (James 2:17) Bible Reading: James 2:14-26 By now it should be obvious that there is more to knowing God than simply knowing things about him. As we have seen, the personal acquaintance with God that our souls seek involves living dependently and responsively with him in a relationship of faith and love. And part of that requires what might be described as the “obedience of faith,” the last thing we will consider in this series. To profess to know God and yet fail to respond to him when he […]

When God Speaks

By Andrew YoungJuly 19, 2017Devotionals: Knowing God

“I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go…” (Psalm 32:8) Bible Reading: Acts 8:26-40 In thinking about knowing God through experienced relationship, the emphasis has been upon ourseeking God in the context of our daily lives. Like David, we cry to God for help when trouble comes upon us, and indeed, to cope with the “ordinary” in life, whatever the circumstances might be. That is one way in which we deepen our knowledge of God. But there is another as well – when we do not cry out to God, but when he takes the […]

Prayer and Knowing God

By Andrew YoungJuly 18, 2017Devotionals: Knowing God

“Pray without ceasing.” (1 Thessalonians 5:17) Bible Reading: Luke 11:1-13 This series would be hopelessly incomplete if we didn’t take the time to reflect on the place of prayer in coming to know God in the vital, experiential way that people long for. The truth is that prayer has been assumed in much that has been written so far. But it is time – perhaps past time – to see exactly how it fits into this matter of an experienced relationship with God. Knowing God experientially, we have seen as we have gone along, is about bringing God into the […]

The Importance of Meditation

By Andrew YoungJuly 17, 2017Devotionals: Knowing God

“Blessed is the man… [whose] delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law h meditates day and night.” (Psalm1:1, 2) Bible Reading: Psalm 1:1-3 Let me pause for a moment to review the ground we have covered in this series of devotionals. Having established that there is a widespread thirst among Christians to know God more deeply, I have argued, along with J.I. Packer, that this knowledge is one of direct dealings or personal acquaintance with him. That kind of knowledge, I have tried to show, comes through experienced relationship – finding God to be real […]

The Need for Humility

By Andrew YoungJuly 15, 2017Devotionals: Knowing God

“Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law.” Psalm 119:18 Bible Reading: Ephesians 1:15-23 We have seen that knowing God in the sense of having direct dealings with him grows out of an assured knowledge of what he is like. That only comes as God speaks to us through the Bible by the Holy Spirit. Our need of the Spirit’s help, in turn, calls for humility. If we are to know God as we long to, we have to realise how deeply we need his help to do so. That can be difficult when we have […]

The Role of the Holy Spirit

By Andrew YoungJuly 14, 2017Devotionals: Knowing God

“When… the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth” (John 16:13) Bible Reading: John 16:5-16 Having established the centrality of the Bible in coming to know God, it is worth dwelling for a moment on another closely related theme to this, namely, the role of the Holy Spirit in making the Scriptures real to us. Over the years that I have been writing Ezra Ministry reflections and devotionals, I have returned again and again to the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives. This has not been to counter a perceived lack of emphasis on […]

Where the Bible Fits

By Andrew YoungJuly 13, 2017Devotionals: Knowing God

“People with an intellectual bent need to be doubly prayerful.” Robert Murray McCheyne Bible Reading: Psalm 119:1-8 Hopefully, the last devotional helped you to see where the Bible fits in developing an intimate, personal relationship with God. It is the foundation and source of our knowledge of God. Without it, we cannot know what God is like, nor can we know the way to seek him so that we can have a relationship with him. That highlights the importance of our constant reading of the Bible – if indeed, we have a Bible (multitudes still don’t). This is where we […]

Getting Things Clear

By Andrew YoungJuly 12, 2017Devotionals: Knowing God

“I sought the LORD, and he answered me…” Psalm 34:4 Bible Reading: Psalm 34:1-22 After reading the last devotional, some of you might think that I am saying that an experienced relationship with God is the basis (or source) of our knowledge of him. But it would be a mistake to do that. I am not for a moment suggesting that our personal experience is the source of our knowledge of God. No, what we know of God is based on what he has revealed of himself to us as noted in an earlier devotional. And that is found particularly […]

A Personal Story

By Andrew YoungJuly 11, 2017Devotionals: Knowing God

“I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go.” Psalm 32:8 Bible Reading: Psalm 32:8-11 How can we come to know God in a personal intimate, practical way? I am suggesting that we do so through an experienced relationship with him – a relationship, as we shall see, that is mediated through his Word and Spirit. That is how my own relationship with God began, and how it has developed over the years. I grew up in what I call a “churched home,” a home where God was believed in and honoured but not a part […]

A God like Abraham’s

By Andrew YoungJuly 10, 2017Devotionals: Knowing God

“Now the Lord said to Abram…” Genesis 12:1 Bible Reading: Genesis 12:1-9 We have come to what is unquestionably the most important point in this series of studies in “knowing God.” We are seeking to learn how we may come to know God in the personal, intimate and practical way that has been sketched earlier – in the way the psalmists and the great characters of the Bible did. These people knew God in such a way that they “walked with him” (Genesis 5:24; 6:9). Their knowledge, we have seen, was not merely notional – a knowledge of ideas. It […]