Prayer

that I may know Him (Phil 3:10)

Lord, I want to know you.  In the end, nothing else matters.  Let me know you.

When I married Leanne, we became one and began a life together.  I married her because I knew I wanted to be with her.  But when I married her, I also began a lifelong process of getting to know her.  I knew her but I didn’t know her.  I knew her because I had spent time with her, had talked with her, and had seen her life.  But when we married, the time with her, the talking with her, and the seeing her life multiplied intensely.  After 27 years of marriage, I now know her much more intimately than I did on our wedding day.  We have shared life together.  We have walked together through unemployment, a miscarriage, deaths of parents, divorces of loved ones, ministry failures and successes, the births of our children, homeschooling, graduations, and more.  We have shared life.  Today I am a richer man because I have gotten to share life with Leanne.

Scripture says that our relationship with God is like a marriage.  Just as Leanne and I have shared life together, so, too, are you and I to share life with God.  He wants us to share life with Him for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health.  He wants to walk with us and us with Him through unemployment and promotions, miscarriages and births, cancer and healing, ministry failures and successes.  God wants a marriage with you. 

Now one of the most basic practices of a good marriage is that the husband and wife talk.  They share their pains and joys, their doubts and certainties, their frustrations and pleasures.  As life happens, the communication of all these thoughts and feelings happens.  It’s part of marriage. 

And it’s part of what God wants from you.  God wants you to know Him and to grow in knowing Him.  This growth happens as you share life with Him, and sharing life with Him requires you to talk with Him.  There is no other way.  If you want to know God, you will pray.  If you don’t pray, you will not know God.  Prayer is where your soul touches God.  Prayer is where you pour out your heart.  It’s where you share with God your pains and joys, your doubts and certainties, your frustrations and pleasures, and you share these thoughts and feelings as life happens.

For too many Christians, however, prayer is flat and one-dimensional.  They come to God to ask for stuff – heal my mom’s knees, give me this job, help me on that test.  While such prayers are certainly legitimate, if this sort of praying is all you ever do, you are not sharing life with God. Quite the opposite in fact.  You are keeping your life to yourself and coming to God when you want something.  What if my wife spoke to me only when she wanted something from me?  What kind of marriage would that be?  That would not be sharing life together. 

Our growth in Christ depends on our willingness to share our souls with Him.  If you want to live the Christian life better, then get to know Christ better.  Come to Him and share with Him your heart and let Him share with you His heart.  The people who best live the Christian life are the people who best know God. 

Indeed, this is why Jesus died:  so that you may know Him. 

So get to know Him.