DAY 2: A RENEWED COMMITMENT TO KNOW HIM
Read Philippians 3:7-11.
It has been said here many times over that to know Christ is one of our chief aims as His followers. Sometimes I feel this is stated over and over again ad nauseum. Yes, another plea to know Christ more… But you know how important it is to know Him. We can know a lot about Christ, but do we really know Him? Do we know His love for us and others? Do we know His suffering? Do we know His passion to make the Father known to this world?
For some of us, our knowledge of Him is informed by our experiences. You may know what it means to love the hard to love. You know what it means to suffer terribly. You know what it means to give your worn out life over to Christ. I would like to suggest, however, that we cannot know Christ by experience alone. In fact, we must know him first before we can apply any experience to our knowledge of Him. Knowing Christ enables us to view our experiences through His eyes. How else will we see the world rightly unless we filter our lives through His life and words? That is why it is so important to take time to read and study God’s word, the Bible.
To consider: If you spend time with God regularly, you already know the value and necessity of this discipline. So consider how you might spur others on to do the same. One does not have to ask if another is spending time with God, but simply sharing what God is teaching you is enough. Allow your life in God’s word to infect others. My prayer is that as you continue the discipline of reading and reflecting on the words of the Bible, you might be able to say as Paul, “I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.”
