Knowing God

Growing up in farm country in southern Ohio I heard some great analogies. Some funny and some quite wise. There’s one I remember that describes a truth about how we can often treat God like a “milk cow,” that is wanting what we can get from Him without truly caring about who He is.

R.C. Sproul often phrased this attitude by saying many Christians desire the things God can give us rather than more of who God is.

So, what’s is the Difference Between Wanting More of God and Wanting More from God:

• · Wanting more from God is using Him to achieve personal goals, while wanting more of God is about seeking Him for who He truly is in all His attributes.
• · Focusing on getting more from God centers on ourselves, whereas desiring more of God means seeking to know His nature and character to better serve Him.
• · When we want more from God, we prioritize our own agendas; but when we want more of God, we honor His will above our own.

Question: When we say, “I want all of God I can get,” are we asking out of our willingness to humble ourselves to know God more deeply? Or are we asking God to fulfill a list of things we desire? Here are some thoughts.

Seeking God Versus Seeking Personal Gain:
Our greatest desire should be to know God more than to seek our own glory. We can test this by asking does God want us to pursue more of Him, or does He primarily encourage us to ask for things from Him?

Friends, God has revealed Himself to save us, a gift beyond measure, but also so we might know Him deeply. He showed Himself to us in the person of Jesus. “Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high:”. (Hebrews 1:3)

We Need to Build a Lasting Foundation:
Having the assurance of salvation, we must then build our lives to depend on God more and more for who He is and not what we want. The sanctified life is built on desiring God as a treasure more precious than gold or silver. In contrast, seeking personal gain from God is more like pursuing wood, hay, and straw—easily consumed by fire. A popular song says, “Christ is my firm foundation, the Rock on which I stand.” How true it is.

The False Theology of “Name It and Claim It:
There is a prevalent teaching that emphasizes using God to gain material blessings, often called “name it and claim it” or the “prosperity gospel.” This mindset treats God as a means for acquiring wealth, possessions, or status. It appeals to our natural desires but neglects the primary purpose of knowing God as He truly is. That is, dying to self and being more conformed to His son, Jesus. “And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.” (Luke 9:23)

God’s Opinion and Our Will:
We often seek God’s blessings but ignore His will and opinion. God is described in scripture as “jealous” and desiring our worship and obedience. Our task is not to bend God’s will to match ours but to discover and align ourselves with His divine plan. Exchanging our will for His will is a fundamental principle to knowing God fully. Attempting to change God’s will to fit our desires shows a lack of respect for His sovereignty. God’s plans are far superior to anything we could conceive, and aligning with His will leads to the best outcomes for our lives. As the psalmist says, “For the Lord God is a sun and shield: the Lord will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly” (Psalm 84:11). Trying to improve upon God’s perfect plan is foolish; instead, we should trust that His ways are always best.

Knowing God means affirming Him as He is, including accepting His will and presenting our bodies (all of what we are) as “a living sacrifice” (Romans 12:1-2). Sacrifice always costs something. In this case it means surrendering all we are to Him. We should seek to know God and value this knowledge above riches or personal achievements. Misunderstanding God’s nature, purpose and will for us can only lead to spiritual poverty.


Credit: Ron Kelley