Afraid to Know God - Part 2

In the previous post, I looked at the idea of being afraid to know God in relation to God Himself. I believe Christians often hold back in their pursuit of God or fail to get serious about knowing Him because they are afraid of what they will find God to be. They fear they will be disappointed in finding that God possesses flaws like they have seen in every other relationship. The conclusion was that God is worth knowing because He perfectly fills every role, completely unlike humans who do fail.

I want to turn the focus now toward fear that stems from the believers' thoughts of themselves. As Christians consider getting to know God better, I believe many are nervous about what that will mean for them personally. They think it might impact their lives in undesired ways, and they aren't quite sure they want that. They wonder if the benefit (of which they are still uncertain) will outweigh the investment. In short, they are afraid of what they think coming to know God better will require.

I believe one aspect of this fear is of the time it will take to get to know God. Time is required to build every relationship. If we consider a spouse or a good friend, or even a more casual acquaintance like a neighbor or co-worker, we realize that relationships grow over time. It is the time we spend together in shared activities, in conversation, in correspondence, and so on, that allows us to get to know each other.

In fact, there was a very first time that we met each person; previous to that we knew nothing at all about him or her. Consider how incredibly that knowledge has changed in the case of a spouse, for instance. We know infinitely more than we first did, and that knowledge came through time spent together.

Most believers probably have an inkling that such a pursuit will involve more time in the Bible, something they may already find challenging. If a believer's Biblical intake has been limited to church services or five minutes with a devotional book, striking out on his own can seem like a real challenge. We'll look at the "how" of this in future posts, but for now I'm thinking more of the "when." If Bible study has not previously been part of the daily routine, it can be difficult to know how to fit in it. After all, we usually already have more to do than we have time to do it in.

I cannot argue with that perception. I can only say that it comes down to priorities. We find time for what is especially important to us. If we had any concept of the benefit that would come from knowing God better, we would find it easier to devote time to that pursuit, and we would more readily divert time from other activities.

That's where the fear comes into play, and the fear in essence reveals our priorities. For example, in order to devote time to getting to know God, we're afraid we'll have to give up (or limit) . . .

          a favorite TV show (or one of them)
          time on the computer (Internet, games, Facebook, Pinterest, etc.)
          spending time with friends (singles' group, young mothers' group)
          talking on the phone
          volunteering or involvement in a community group
          a perfectly clean house and gourmet meals
          a hobby
          expanding or maintaining the flower garden

None of those activities are necessarily bad, but if we place them above knowing God, we are revealing where our priorities lie. It may be possible to keep doing all of those things while also investing time with God, but it may also be possible that God will want us to eliminate or curtail some of those activities so that we can devote time to the greater end of knowing Him.

The good news is that we don't have to become masters in knowing God all at once. We might think, "It has taken me twenty years to get to know my husband, and sometimes I still don't understand him." That is just the way it will be with God. Our knowledge will grow over time as we spend time with him. Our initial efforts might yield significant results, just as the knowledge of a husband grew dramatically in the first months.

We cannot get frustrated, however, if the reward for our efforts falls short of our expectations. Much like a financial investment, our dedication to knowing God will yield increased reward over time. It is important that we learn some basic things to start out; later truth will build upon earlier truth, but it will be necessary for the earlier truth to exist before the later truth can be achieved. There are things about God that we won't have the capacity to understand fully until we have grown in maturity. Continued interactions gradually build on the initial foundation.

Getting to know God does require time, and we must commit to that investment. On an encouraging note, knowing God does not require multiple hours of focused attention every day. We do not need to lay the rest of our lives aside to focus solely on knowing God. Because knowing God is a lifetime pursuit, it is made up of multitudes of individual steps. A step or two each day will gradually add up to give progress on our journey - but we must take those small steps.

Just as with a retirement account, we don't need a huge investment to get started, but we do need some investment. The amount of time we spend will vary depending on the legitimate demands of our schedules and the depth of passion we have for such a pursuit. While the first factor may be out of our control, the second is not. God will bless whatever amount of effort we make, but, in general, the more we invest, the greater dividends we will receive, and therefore the more we will continue to want to invest. Seeking to know God better is a worthwhile use of our time. We need not fear that time invested in this pursuit will be wasted, nor that it will prevent us from doing something better.

"Thus says the LORD, 'Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches; but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows me.'" Jeremiah 9:23-24a (NASB)