How Do We Come To Know God?

Dear Prayer Team,

I just wanted to share something I heard recently that was of particular comfort to me. I think you'll see why.

A young man at the church where my family and I worship was speaking two Sundays ago about knowing God. He mentioned that as he was in a leadership position for a youth group he was asked by a particularly upstanding young man in his group three questions that shook him to his core. The questions were this: 1. Is it truly possible to know God? 2. Do you REALLY know Him? 3. How does a person really get to know Him?

Simple questions, eh? These questions catapulted the youth leader into a harrowing search for his faith that lasted over a two year period and brought him to his knees in a way that he never knew existed. Today he can answer an emphatic yes to the first two, but he answers the third by way of a story.

He befriended and later married a woman who had a little girl from previous, difficult circumstances which he did not go into. He felt an instant bond with the child and wanted her to accept him first as friend, and later as father. He naively set her on a counter and put his arms out for her to jump to him so that he could catch her. She wasn't having any of it. Why would she leap into the arms of a person who had no track record? No evidence had been gathered that he was trustworthy! He seemed big, but what if he wasn't even strong enough to catch her?

He set her on a bed about two and a half feet off the floor and tried again...still nothing. He asked her to just lean into him and very carefully she decided to do that. Over the weeks he would stand her up further and further from the edge of the bed and have her lean to him. After a while she began to jump to him and now will leap off of steps to he and his wife when they aren't even ready for her. And why not? They've faithfully shown that they will never drop her!

The waves crashed about the small boat. A ghostly figure appears atop the treacherous waters. If Jesus wanted to meet His disciples and talk, couldn't he have just scheduled a time with them? Why make the point of walking out to them upon the water?

Peter dares to ask if the Lord would allow him to walk out to Him. Was he doing this just to see if he could be some sort of "super disciple"? Was he trying to impress Jesus? Was he just a thrill seeker?

Jesus came out to them in a very dramatic and shocking way. Why? I think it was because he wanted to show them that he was beyond their expectations. He was setting them up. It was as if to say, "Okay, fit THIS situation into your logical but experiential view of the world. Doesn't it seem to you that if I can make even the most basic properties of water obey me that maybe you need not fear the situations that confront you?"

I believe that something inside of Peter needed to KNOW that Jesus was powerful enough to extend his reign over the roiling seas to protect one of His beloved disciples. As he stepped out of the boat and felt the water supporting his weight he saw Jesus' powerful strength. As he began to focus on the waves and doubted what he already knew to be true he began to sink. As Jesus caught him, Peter learned that even when our faith fails us, even when we are weak, Jesus is there to save us.

What shocking or difficult circumstances are confronting you? What challenge to overcome are you facing? And more positively, what exciting step of faith is the Lord asking you to make? Did you know that these are the very situations that God uses to teach us to know him more deeply as the God of strength, comfort, rescue, mercy, forgiveness, etc...

Do we want to know Jesus more? His strong arms will never drop us! His love never fails!

Go ahead!

Jump to Him!