Growing One's Faith

Knowing About God AND Knowing God

My friend, David, is a faculty member of a local medical school. So, it seemed natural to seek his input when I was looking for a new general practitioner. He gave me a solid recommendation including several glowing remarks about the doctor to whom he was referring me.

Trusting David, and primed with his perspective, I confidently initiated the new patient onboarding process. In my initial appointment, the doctor impressed me as polite, knowledgeable about healthcare, and invested in my personal health.

Yet, it was only through a challenge to my health that I experienced what I had heard about this doctor. My trust was initiated by what I knew about her. But it was solidified by experiencing her care and knowing her when I needed her.

So, it is with God.

There is a big difference between knowing about God and knowing God.

As a zealous young pastor, I waffled between embracing one & overlooking the other. Yet, with three more decades of knowing about God and knowing God, I’ve come to better understand how each contributes to deepening our faith, and how it is indeed the combination of knowing about God and knowing God that matures us as believers.

In other words, it’s both/and, not either/or.

How do we know about God?

Certainly, the most reliable way is directly through Scripture.

We can hear sermons, podcasts, testimonies, teachings, as well as reading books, devotions, blogs… but without a growing personal knowledge of Scripture, it can get increasingly difficult to discern between opinions and actual knowledge. Every human brings his/her biases, opinions, presuppositions, and/or purposes into his/her teaching and writing. The only way one can discern these from knowledge of God is to learn Scripture. However, assuming you’re hearing and reading faithful preachers and authors, one can learn much about God from them.

How do we know God?

Much like my physician referral, knowing about God initiates trust and pours the foundation upon which one can turn to God, recognize Him, and experience His presence, grace, and love when one needs to know Him.

We get to know God when we recognize what we’ve heard about Him in our own lives. That most often happens when we are in need.

Then, as our knowing about God and our knowing God merges, we find Him present and active in our lives whether we are aware of specific needs or not. This is when we begin abiding in Him.

Consider your favorite people in Scripture:

• Do you see this pattern in their stories?

• Did they hear about God first?

• Did they trust at least some part of what they heard?

• Did that trust open their eyes to recognize God as they faced a trial?

• Did that recognition catapult their faith to much greater levels?

We know about God from Scripture. This initiates trust and gives us a filter through which we discern and recognize Him from opinions, agendas, and emotions.

We know God through personal experiences that align, or at least do not contradict, Scripture.

“My ears had heard of you, but now my eyes have seen you.”

Job 42:5