This morning in my quiet time, I was reading Elizabeth Elliot's A Lamp For My Feet and came upon this:
How to Know God
The order of the Christian's assignment is: hear, do, know. If we hear the commandments and obey them, the Father will make Himself known to us. It is no use trying to know Him without doing what He says. To listen to one word and go out and obey it is better than having the most exalted "religious experience," for it puts us in touch with God Himself--it is a willed response.
"If you really love me you will keep the commandments I have given you." It is perilously easy to imagine that we love God because we like the idea of God, or because we feel drawn to Him. The only valid test of love is obedience. Take one thing commanded and start doing it. Take one thing forbidden and stop doing it. Then we are on the sure road to knowing God. There is no other.
"You are my friends, if you do what I command you" (Jn 15:14 NEB).
"The man who has received my commands and obeys them--he it is who loves me: and he who loves me will be loved by my Father; and I will love him and disclose myself to him" (Jn 14:21). There is the order: hear, do, know.
What wonderfully simple advice. All of us can stop doing one thing and start doing one thing. And if the end result is knowing God, isn't today a good day to start?
4 comments:
Shanny, this is wonderful! Thank you so much for posting this devotional. ♥
Very good post! I should print it out and tape it to my forkhead so everytime I look in the mirror I see it! :)
(Sorry, couldn't resist "forkhead" You've warped and and that's how we say it now! )
Please forgive the funky typing. I took an allergy pill and my brain isn't on straight! :D
Hmm, now I just have to choose from a long list of what to stop and what to start! Thank you for sharing, Shannon!
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