How do you get to know someone?
When you’re dating someone, you want to spend every waking moment together. After the initial honeymoon phase, you begin to share hopes and dreams with each other, things that make you tick. You develop your own culture with inside jokes and shared experiences. You start to finish each other’s sentences and you want to share the same physical space. That sounds easy, right, because there are two of you and you’re both tangible.
But how do you get to know an invisible God? Everyone says to read the Bible, but how many people actually do that? Is there another way? It is a biblical truth that the way you learn about God is to hear Him. As you get to know Him, you begin to learn His voice. In order to learn His voice, we have to read the Bible because the Bible is His living Word. That’s how you start to know God.
So you’re wondering how does He get to know you? God already knows you. He know each and every single one of us because He created us. He knew you in your mother’s womb, even before you were born (Jeremiah 1:5).
John 10:27-28 says My sheep (that’s us) listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand.
A relationship can’t be one sided. Both parties have to share a part of themselves.
Have you heard of catfishing? Catfishing is when someone uses a fake identity, usually online, and baits someone else into a romantic connection or friendship. Why does it hurt so much? Because one person gave their all while the other person was only superficial and fake.
If you want a relationship to work, whether it be romantic or otherwise, you can’t hold back, you have to be all in; hopes, fears, dreams, love… all of it. Otherwise, it won’t last.
When you start reading God’s Word, you start to learn all about who God is. You’ll learn about the unconditional love and mercy that He has for His creation, you and me. And soon you’ll start to realize how much your heavenly Father truly loves you.
So where should you start? If you’ve never read the Bible I recommend you start reading in the New Testament with the Four Gospels which are Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Start there. Each time you sit down to read, ask God to open your ears, your eyes and your heart to what you need to learn at that reading. Find a quiet place, where you won’t be interrupted while you’re reading. Believe it or not, this is called the prayer closet. It’s not a literal closet, though, it could be. Try to read a little bit each day and read as you’re led.
You can skip around, you can just open the Bible to any page and start reading. And don’t worry if you don’t understand something. Just keep going or write down what you don’t understand so you can look it up later. There are some great Bible websites listed in the Resources page. I’m so excited for you and for this journey you have chosen with God.
Here’s a great song that I think goes with this idea of getting to know God from a human perspective.