Knowing About God

How many Bibles do you have in your home? How many churches are within a 5-mile radius of you? How many Bible studies/devotions do you have? Now consider the number of people in your church. What about the number of other believers you know at work? At least in America, we aren’t yet short on people who at least know of God, and many of us are blessed to be able to regularly interact with godly people who encourage us. Add to these numbers the available resources on the Internet and television, and it’s safe to say we don’t lack for opportunity to learn about God.

I love to learn about God, His promises of blessings, how He has a plan for my life, and how His plan is for a future and a hope. I must admit, though, that this sometimes replaces actually knowing God.

Consider Job

“Have you noticed my servant Job? Look at this man of integrity, the finest in all the earth, who fears God and rejects all evil (Job 1:8).”

While Satan considered Job by saying he was who he was because of His riches and prosperity, let us consider Job and why God was confident in allowing Satan to test him.

Job amazes anyone who takes the time to study his life. He lost everything — wife, kids, wealth, health — and still remained a man of integrity, still feared God, and still rejected evil. No matter what happened, Job simply refused to turn from God. It’s an amazing story full of impact.

“For examples of patience and suffering, dear brothers and sisters, look at the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. We give great honor to those who endure under suffering. Job is an example of a man who endured patiently. From his experience we see how the Lord’s plan finally ended in good, for he is full of tenderness and mercy” (James 5:10-11).

In The Fire of Delayed Answers, Bob Sorge points out a fact about Job that I had not considered before and that struck me as tremendously profound.

“The thing that’s stunningly amazing is that Job survived his ordeal without the aid of written Scripture, without the support of godly friends, and without anyone who could speak the prophetic word of the Lord to him.”

Job was the first book of the Bible to be put on paper. As such, Sorge notes that

“It’s fascinating to consider what was the first message that the Holy Spirit wanted to establish with quill and ink.”

Job went through tremendous trials, unimaginable heartache, and significant loneliness before getting any understanding of God’s working in his life. Job also went through all of this alone with literally just his faith in God to sustain Him.

Patient Endurance

How could Job patiently endure so much and never turn from God?  Without a study Bible or a Bible dictionary or a church to go to or encouraging friends or a devotional or the Internet, how did he make it?

Sorge helps answer the question by saying,

“The fact that Job came through with his faith intact is testimony both to the grace of God on his life and to the eminent stature of his spirituality.”

The grace of God absolutely answers this question, and the answer forces me to confront aspects of my own spirituality. The lack of recognition of God’s grace in my own life — or maybe it’s more that I take His grace for granted — and the over-dependence on tools for knowing about Him often become a crutch. I’m not saying these tools are bad, but I am saying they can distract me from simply basking in God’s grace.

Don’t get rid of your Bibles and study tools or stop using Internet resources, and certainly don’t stop connecting with other godly believers. These are all good, useful, and worthwhile.

Perhaps, like me, though, you need to become more aware — or re-aware — of God’s grace. Perhaps spending more time recognizing and thanking Him for His grace in your life before delving into those tools will make them even more effective.