Our Heart Before God – To Know God

Psalm 46:10

“Cease striving and know that I am God, I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”

Another translation reads “Be still and know.” I have liked the New American Standard version because of what I see in the depth of the translation. The passage in the NASB tells us to cease striving, stop working at it, it isn't that difficult to know God.

Psalm 46:10 says to “cease striving and know that I am God.” Stop trying so hard, sit down and relax and get to know that I am God.

God knows us, and He wants us to stop, sit down and get to know Him.

How much time do we spend getting to know Him in a personal way. Knowing Him and how He works will help us to get through the storms of life and whatever turns in the road of life that there may be.

We can go through the Bible and find many examples of people who got to know God. One example that we see a lot of in the Old Testament is David. The New Testament has a passage about How God saw David, even with all of David's faults.

Acts 13:22

After He had removed him, He raised up David to be their king, concerning whom He also testified and said, ‘I have found David the son of Jesse, A man after My heart, who will do all My will.’

What a statement and what a way to be remembered, “A man after My heart” A man who wanted to know God in such a way that David is known as a man after God's heart.

Are any of us chasing after God that way? Do we want to have that close of a relationship with God?

There was a series of Books that I had read several years ago written by Tommy Tenney called The God Chasers. We need to get close to God, I don't believe we need to chase Him, and Tenney wasn't suggesting a physical chase.  He is always with us. But chasing a Godly life style, chasing a desire to know Him more and be like Him is what I am suggesting.

Setting our mind, body and soul, to wholeheartedly get to know God. So that our life is an example of a Godly person. We are in a place where we allow God to search us, help us to get rid of things in our life that will hinder a relationship with Him. The first part of Jeremiah 20: 12 says “Yet, O Lord of hosts, You who test the righteous, Who see the mind and the heart...” He tells us that the Lord sees our hearts and our minds.

God knows where we have our hearts are, He knows where we place our priorities. He knows our very thoughts, He knows what is on our and in our minds.

The world can be a very busy place, we can get so caught up in the things going on around us that we allow our priorities to get shuffled around. We can lose site of God and our relationship with Him.

As it is if you look at the world around there are so many things that demand our attention that so many people have lost site of several things. People lose site of family priorities, job related priorities, and so many other things. So, few people set God as their number one priority, then family, then job.

Too many live in a world of self, “Me, Me, Me.”

At times I have looked at myself and backed off things if I even remotely think I have set a personal agenda as a priority.  No, at those moments we must stop and closely look at ourselves and our lives.

If we find our time with God is off, we need to change that. If we find that we have set ourselves up as number one, we have to be able to see that and make changes.

The only way we can truly get to know God is to develop a relationship with Him. We need to sit and listen, we need to be still, stop striving.

Matthew 11: 28-30

“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.   Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.   For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

Come to me all of you are weary, you are striving, you need to rest, Be still will you, learn from Me, learn My ways. We try and do it our way so much, but Jesus invites us to learn from Him in how to walk through this world.

He isn't saying He will take the burdens of life away, but He is saying that He will teach how to work through them.

God sees our hearts, our minds, He knows our Hearts and our minds. Yet we struggle to get to know Him, we need to stop working so hard at that. Sit down and allow God to show us the way, let Him examine us and help us to correct us on life's path.

Open your heart and God in wholeheartedly. Be one who is after God's heart. Ask God to ...

Psalm 51: 10-13

 Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation And sustain me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, And sinners will be converted to You.

He will clean you heart, with your co-operation, because we have to be willing. Knowing God with your whole heart, opens you to a life that abundant and free.

John 8:36

So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.