Soul Care: The Road to Knowing God
I recently came out of a six-month journey through the book of Philippians. It was a slow journey where I took small portions of Scripture and meditated on them. I would use the Lectio Divina process to reflect, pray through and seek God’s direction for my life with these small portions, week after week, month after month.
After this time in Philippians, Paul’s deep love for Jesus struck me like never before. As a Pharisee, Paul spent much of his life knowing about God. But when Paul encountered Jesus on the road to Damascus, he began his journey to experientially knowing God.
Even as Christians, we can share a similar experience with the Apostle Paul, where we know much about God without robust growth in knowing God personally and intimately.
Learning about God and how He has revealed himself in the Bible is essential. But how can we go from knowing about God to knowing Him?
Know Jesus — the Bible tells us that to have peace with God, we must know Jesus for who He is. We need to know Him as God come in human flesh, fully God and fully human.
Know the Bible — The Bible Project describes the Bible as “a unified story that leads to Jesus.” Knowing, reading, and studying the Bible is a lifelong pursuit in understanding who God is and who I am.
Seek to know God — ideally, we seek to know God as soon as we come to know Jesus, but we often find ourselves knowing about Him instead.
Here are some intentional ways we can grow in our knowing God:
Ask Him. Let God know that you want to know Him. If your desire is not what you would like, ask Him for that too.
Make time and space for spending intentional time with God. Practice soul training exercises like taking Sabbath, silence, gratitude, lectio divina, and margin.
Live a life of faith. How are you living today that requires faith in God? What evidence is there that you trust in God and not just yourself?
Surround yourself with a healthy community of believers. God’s intent has always been community — healthy community. Healthy community is not perfect, but is identified by love, encouragement, and a desire to be like Jesus.
Read The Good and Beautiful God by James Bryan Smith. An easy-to-read book that helps you identify false narratives about God while encouraging spiritual practices to help you grow.
Read Knowing God by J.I. Packer. A Christian classic that is both theological and practical.
Grow in prayer. Prayer, at its simplest, is talking to God. Remember to end your prayer with a time of waiting and listening for a response from the Holy Spirit. How is God inviting you to participate with Him today? An excellent resource for this is Practicing the Way’s Prayer Practice with its companion book, Praying Like Monks, Living Like Fools, by Tyler Staton.
Knowing God is a journey that can bring peace, joy, and contentment to your soul as you live your everyday life.
Here’s to enjoying the journey together!