ISAIAH 62:6-7 – On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have set watchmen; all the day and all the night they shall never be silent. You who put the LORD in remembrance, take no rest, and give him no rest until he establishes Jerusalem and makes it a praise in the earth.

THEME OF THE DAY. DESIRE TURNED PURSUIT. If we quizzed a group of Christians with this question, “Do you want to know God?”, there would not be a single response like, “Yeah, I think so. That would be nice.” Nor would we hear, “No, not really. I am all set.” Every true Christian is given the desire to know God. He plants this yearning inside the new creature (2 Corinthians 5:17). Where this desire is totally absent, there is no new life in Christ despite what we profess. And where this desire is faint and barely alive, this person is a believer, but a severely backslidden Christian. But let’s go a little deeper in our quizzing of our group of Christians. Now we ask, “How badly do you really want to know God? How intense is your pursuit of Him?” The answers might be slow in coming. A silence may grip the group which is a silence of conviction and confession. Zeal may be lacking. Self-discipline to know Him may be lacking. Worldliness may be squashing the desire. When it comes to knowing God, two things must be established in our hearts and lives as the starting points.

First, we must grasp that one of the chief reasons for our salvation is to know God. Jesus starts out His High Priestly prayer stating what eternal life is, which is really what we are given at salvation. “When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (John 17:1-3). If our understanding and working out our salvation is restricted to being saved, forgiven, and granted heaven, we are missing it. And in the missing of it, we won’t passionately seek to know the Lord. Ask God to show us He saved us so we would know Him because to know Him is to love.

The next foundational block to build a life of knowing God is to fuel desire for Him. The Psalmist cries out, “O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory. Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you” (Psalm 63:1-3). Where was David when he wrote this Psalm? In the wilderness of Judah, far away from the temple and where God promised to meet with His people. David’s hunger for God came out of his desperation for God. He needed his fellowship. And it will be so with us. A true desire to know God flows from a heart desperately needing God. Until we see how much we need Him in all areas of life, we will not shape our lives – time and places – to get to Him to meet that need. We quickly know how deep our desire to know God is by doing what we read in today’s scripture; we give Him no rest. We will get close to Him in Word and prayer no matter what it takes.

So, we are in the crowd being asked the question, “How badly do you want to know God?” Well, what is our answer? It will be based on our understanding of salvation and of our desire to know Him turned into relentless pursuit of Him; a pursuit giving Him no rest until we find and enjoy Him.

PRAYER: “Lord, let my professed desire to know You be affirmed by my relentless pursuit of You.”

QUOTE: “God is knowable and wants us to know Him, the question is how much do we want to know Him?”