“No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the Lord. For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” (Jeremiah 31:34 NIV)
What a wonderful day it will be when all the people of the Land–all over the world–stand up and declare, “I know The Lord.” Even though many of us teach that God will remember our sins, no more, we often forget the qualifier–when all know Him.
Having a knowledge of someone or something does mean we “know” for what we have is surface knowledge. It is the surface knowledge–without any depth–that most can claim to know about God, for those who even acknowledge He exists. For those who claim He doesn’t exist, it is because they choose to ignore Him and want to control their lives–doing whatever they want to do–having no accountability to anyone but themselves (just as Satan does).
While writing this, I remembered an exchange on an online news article with someone–a young lady I believe who wanted to dispute the veracity of God’s Word regarding homosexuality. Her comeback to encouragement to read The Word for herself was, “God wrote the Ten Commandments, but men wrote the Bible.” Her limited, surface knowledge of God did not give her any insight as to “men writing what God inspired them to write.” including the Ten Commandments. These are the people who “know of God,” but don’t know Him.
It should not amaze anyone that those who refuse to obey will ultimately make excuses, live in denial, and re-write a bible–eliminating references to sin, hell and anything else they choose to ignore, including changing the gender of God, without justification or understanding any of history. Jesus called Him, Father (as translated into English). Any word–in any language–used to indicate “father” means a male. Therefore, simply re-writing anything pertaining to God’s Word–does not change His intent for human beings or what He said. It is only those who are intimidated by The Word that desire to change it,anyway.
But those who know God, accept His Word and understand His intent–not because of what is written on a page in a book, but because they have developed a relationship with Him and communicate with Him on a regular basis. And I don’t mean ritualistic prayer where “words are merely repeated” but have not the power to transcend the heavens. Merely repeating words is not communication and if we understand that communication requires interaction between two people, we would know that not only do we talk to God in prayer, we listen to what He has to say.
Think about it this way. If we’re communicating with a spouse and all they heard was the same thing and they never responded, the marriage wouldn’t last long. If children keep repeating the same request of parents and parents never respond, frustration and rebellion ensues. There can be no communication without a response or interaction between the two parties. Prayer is communication with God; therefore, we must actively listen to what He has to say to us before we continue to badger Him with redundant nothingness. When we hear and obey, He knows, we know Him and when He knows we know Him, He forgives our sins and remembers them no more.
Do we know Him or do we just know about Him? Soon and very soon, we must all give an account for what we do and say, and right now, I’m declaring, “I know The Lord!”
maryhallrayford 