Photo by Behnam Norouzi on Unsplash

I have come to realize that much of the Christian life is about God trying to convince us that His words are true. More often than not, we are easily moved to doubt or unbelief. Yet, God makes space for our doubt. It´s unbelief that is the problem. Doubt is the in between of faith and unbelief. Where faith acknowledges the existence of God and the power of the Gospel, unbelief refuses to accept that Jesus is Lord and denies His very existence. Thus, Paul said, ¨Believe in your heart¨(Rom. 10:9). Jesus came to rescue us from our unbelief.

When Thomas doubted Jesus had been resurrected from the dead, Jesus did not condemn Thomas. He actually gave him proof that it was all true. This is a repetitive theme throughout Scripture. When humanity doubted God, God reassured the people that they could trust Him and often confirmed His words with miraculous signs.

Jesus understands that we are limited by the natural that He finds ways to give us supernatural proofs so that we can trust Him. Life will challenge our faith and what we believe. In those challenging times is when we often come to know best that God is true to all that He said he would do and all that He says He is. Undoubtedly, 2023 will have it´s trials, but the great assurance to you and I is that, ¨The words of the Lord are flawless.¨ God words have endured the test of time like precious metals being refined. And even then, His words have remained true!

Instead of being easily swayed by life, why don’t we take God at His word this new year and trust Him! “God is not human, that he should lie, not a human being, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill” (Number 23:19 NIV)? God has never gone back on His word, nor will He in 2023. He is Faithful!

There is something special that happens when the church gathers together. There is nothing on earth like it. It’s the conglomeration of people from all different walks of life joined together for a singular purpose with an eternal hope. It’s the foretaste of heaven as seen in Rev. 7:14, NRSV, “a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb.” The gathering of the church is covered in the promise of Jesus, “For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them” (Matt. 18:20, NRSV). Where the church gathers, Jesus gathers with them too. What a beautiful reminder that if you are in search of God’s presence, gather with the believers.

The chief goal of the gathering of the church is that God may be glorified, that the church may be built up, and that the unbeliever may “bow down before God and worship Him, declaring, “God is really among you” (1 Cor. 14:25-26, NRSV). Nothing less. There are many skeptics who look at the church and often wonder, “Is God real? Are those people crazy? Is God really with them?” However, Scripture reminds us that the presence of God at work in the church is God’s affirmation on the church’s gathering and the confirmation of God’s reality to the world. It should be the hope of our gatherings that the skeptic never leaves wondering, “Is God real?” Instead, they should leave saying, “God is really among you!”

May we never underestimate or lose sight of what can happen when God’s power is at work among his church. Some may discover God for the first time and others may only be one word of encouragement away from giving up on it all. God is with them both and the difference isn’t in the worship style, the size of the building or congregation, the popular preacher, or the audio and visual effects. The difference is the presence of God at work in and through His church. Every time the church gathers is an opportunity for God to demonstrate His majesty and might for the believer and the unbeliever so that all the world may know He’s God. Isn't this what our world needs now more than ever?

“My speech and my proclamation were not with plausible words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God.” 1 Corinthians 2:4-5, NRSV

It’s an exciting and wonderful curiosity to ponder what might happen when we prioritize the presence of God in our gatherings! As churches prepare to gather this Sunday, let’s pray for those gatherings that God would be glorified, the church would be edified, and the unbeliever would discover God.

“I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:10-14

I want to know Christ

One of my great influences in theological thinking is J.I. Packer, who passed away last year.1 Packer is known for his expansive and seminal work, Knowing God. What I love about Packer’s work is that he prefaces Knowing God with an important spiritual self-examination before pursuing knowledge of God.

“We need to ask ourselves: What is my ultimate aim and object in occupying my mind with these things? What do I intend to do with my knowledge about God, once I have it? For the fact that we have to face is this: If we pursue theological knowledge for its own sake, it is bound to go bad on us. It will make us proud and conceited. The very greatness of the subject matter will intoxicate us, and we shall come to think of ourselves as a cut above other Christians because of our interest in it and grasp of it; and we shall look down on those whose theological ideas seem to us crude and inadequate and dismiss them as very poor specimens. For, as Paul told the conceited Corinthians, “Knowledge puffs up. . . . The man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know” (1 Cor 8:1-2). To be preoccupied with getting theological knowledge as an end in itself, to approach Bible study with no higher a motive than a desire to know all the answers, is the direct route to a state of self-satisfied self-deception.”2

Packer encourages the rising theologian, Bible student, layperson, believer, etc. to ensure one’s motives are seeking to know God relationally and not just intellectually. It could be said that the pursuit of God should be to know about God so that we may know Him. A spiritual pursuit of God is a lifetime investment that requires self-discipline, refining, reading, praying, listening, and repeat it all over thousands of times. The pursuit of God is not for the faint of heart, but those who love God will gladly pay the cost because they know there is no greater joy than knowing God. This is at the heart of what Christian spirituality is. It is the intersect where what we know about God informs our love for God, which entices us onward in our spiritual walk. It is not enough for one to read their Bible to only inform their mind, one must glean from Scripture so that their heart is compelled into this loving relationship with their Heavenly Father.

I Press On

Eugene Peterson says this about Christian spirituality, “The assumption of spirituality is that always God is doing something before I know it. So the task is not to get God to do something I think needs to be done, but to become aware of what God is doing so that I can respond to it and participate and take delight in it.”3 Peterson’s assessment is the practical intersect point of applying what we know about God to our relationship with God. This is where the quest to know God through spiritual disciplines such as fasting, prayer, reflection, etc. is important. Then, it becomes our duty to combine the spiritual disciplines with discernment so that we may participate in God’s relationship with us.

One such discipline is prayer. Prayer is a discipline as ancient as time, but still yields fresh results through the its practitioners (Genesis 4:26). When prayer and discernment intersect, clarity for the voice of God follows. The Spirit who indwells the believer, the Triune God, who created the intricacies of our lives, finds room to speak and give life in our prayers if we will allow Him. Silence, solitude, and contemplation are counter-cultural disciplines amidst a world of increasing busyness and noise. The truth remains the same—God is speaking, who is listening? What Father would not want to speak to His children? Our Heavenly Father certainly desires such a relationship with his beloved.

The practice of discernment is learning to listen to the voice of the Spirit. “The Spirit of truth…will guide you into all the truth” (John 16:13). Amidst the noise, busyness, and a world of perceived relative truths, the Spirit becomes our primary guide to ascertain the life-giving truths from the Father that will lead us into righteousness. The central question in Christian spirituality then becomes, “Where is the Spirit at work in the world, in the church, and in my life so that I may participate in it?” Jesus insisted through his teachings, “That he that has ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit is saying to the church” (Matthew 11:15, Revelation 2:7). Discerning the voice of truth requires one to be familiar with that voice, which means learning to listen

through the Word of God. Scripture is evidence of the character of God and is quite literally, The Words of God.

So like the many who have ran the race before us, God invokes us to join the journey of pursuing Him. Let us not grow content in the knowledge of God without knowing God. May we learn through the guidance of the Spirit how to internalize our knowledge of God so that we may exude fresh love for God.

God, it’s our prayer today, “I want to know Christ.” Help us as we are pursuing you. We don’t want to just know about you. We want to know about you so that we may know you. Grant us discerning ears and much grace so that we will “Press on,” in our pursuit of You.