Do You Know God?

There is a difference in knowing God and knowing about God. Most people know about God from things they have observed or heard. Your parents may have talked to you about God. You may attend church and hear sermons about God. However, knowing about God is not knowing God.

Know God by faith. He who comes to God must believe (Hebrews 11:6). You cannot come to God any other way. Because God is Spirit, you cannot see Him with your eyes (John 4:24). Only faith can usher you into the presence of God.

Know God in your heart. The word heart refers to your mind, will, and emotions. God changes our hearts through the gospel of Jesus Christ, enabling your faith to know God the Father through the Son (John 14:6). You know God by looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2).

Know God in a personal relationship. You walk with God by faith. For we walk by faith, not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7). Faith is assurance that God is with you, and all the time. Faith is assurance that God hears your prayers. Faith is the evidence. When you know God, faith is the evidence of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1).

How to Rest in Christ

Works may boast and say, "I can get you to heaven, if you try hard and labor to do your best." Salvation is the gift of God to be received. We don't work to earn a gift, we simply receive it. "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast" (Ephesians 2:8-9). Salvation is not by our works, but resting in the finished work of Christ. Salvation is the gift of God through faith in Christ.

Jesus says to you,"Come unto Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest"(Matthew 11:28). Jesus invites all who are weary to come to Him and find rest. The word rest refers to our salvation as the gift of God in Christ. Rest in Christ alone means completely depending upon Him to do in us what we cannot do.

Salvation in Christ is by God's grace alone. Salvation is about what God has done for us in Christ. It's what God is doing in us and through us. That's called grace, and its fulness is found in Jesus Christ our Lord (John 1:16). He is the fulness of grace.

Salvation is resting with confidence, trust, and reliance in Christ alone, to do in us what we are unable to do. Only Jesus Christ can save us. That means we rest in Christ alone. Rest in God's love, mercy, and grace, believing on the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 16:30-31).

Grace Alone Saves Us

Charles H. Spurgeon said, "Men need to be told that, unless divine grace brings them out of their enmity to God, they will eternally perish." He went on to say "that if they are to be saved, it must be by grace, and by grace alone."

Grace alone saves us and not our works (Titus 3:4-5). If salvation is by works, we could boast of what we have done. However, salvation is by the grace of God, which means it is the gift of God (Ephesians 2:8-9). Salvation is the finished work of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are saved by grace through faith in Christ, to the glory of God!

Spurgeon knew that if we are saved, it's not by grace plus our works. Many teach that salvation is initiated by God's grace and must be completed by our works. Not so. We are saved by God's grace alone. His grace begins and completes our salvation in Christ (Philippians 1:6). 

Grace alone saves us through faith in Christ. Faith receives the gift of God in Christ. The gift of God is the grace of God, found in Christ alone (Acts 4:12). He alone died for our sins. He alone is risen from the dead as our living Lord. Grace is trusting the finished work of Christ for us, and the work of Christ in us. We are saved by grace alone, as the gift of God in Christ (Ephesians 2:8-9).

How to Please God

"But without faith, it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him" (Hebrews 11:6). Our relationship with God is based upon faith. Without faith we can never please God. Therefore, we need to understand the faith that pleases God.

Faith is the way to please God. Faith is a gift of God's grace, an abiding gift of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 13:13). The indwelling Holy Spirit gives us faith in God. That's a gift which abides and endures (1 Corinthians 13:13). It comes by hearing the word of God (Romans 10:17).

Faith is the bond of trust in our relationship with God. All good personal relationships are built upon trust. To know God in a meaningful relationship is to trust God through Jesus Christ (John 14:1; Ephesians 1:13). In the Greek New Testament, the word pisteuo means to believe or trust. The Bible describes God as trustworthy. Those who trust in God and His Son Jesus Christ are not disappointed (Romans 10:9-11).

Faith is confidence in God. That means God is working in us to please Himself. "For it is God who works in you both to will and do for His good pleasure" (Philippians 2:13). God works in our hearts to trust Him and believe on His Son. Faith is "looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith" (Hebrews 12:2).

Is Jesus the Only Way?

Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me (John 14:6). Believers in our Lord Jesus Christ come to God. The Bible was not written simply to give us academic information about God. It was written to tell us how to come to God for our personal salvation. Jesus is the only way to God.

Jesus is the way we come to God our Father (John 4:24). Jesus is the truth. The Holy Spirit bears witness to the truth of Jesus in our spirit (Romans 8:16). The gospel of Jesus Christ is God's way to salvation from the condemnation and judgment of our sins (1 Corinthians 15:1-4). Only Jesus died for our sins. Only Jesus was raised from the dead to be our Savior and living Lord (Romans 10:9).

Through Jesus Christ, believers come to God to be saved. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved (Acts 16:31). Come to God through faith in Christ. Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved (Acts 4:12). Jesus is the only sure way to God. We personally come to God believing the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Sin separates us from God. Jesus died to take all our sins away (1 John 1:7).

Jesus is the only way believers come to God our Father in prayer. Pray in the name of Jesus (John 14:13). That's because Jesus is the only Mediator between God and man. For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus (1 Timothy 2:5). Pray to God our Father in the name of Jesus.

How God Accepts You

God accepts you in His only begotten Son (John 3:16). Our sin is always unacceptable to God. He sent his Son into this world to take away your sins. Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29). At the cross, Jesus died for your sins. You are accepted by faith in God's beloved Son. "He made us accepted in the Beloved" (Ephesians 1:6).

God accepts you through the righteousness of Christ. God takes away our sins and accounts us righteous in Christ alone (2 Corinthians 5:21). Believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, you receive the righteousness of God. That's why you can sing, "My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness."

God accepts you in Christ, though you are not perfect, and never will be in this life. We have all failed God in many different ways. The Bible calls it sin. We can never earn our way into God's favor. His unmerited favor is called grace, and it's always a gift received by faith in Christ. Then you may testify, "by the grace of God I am what I am" (1 Corinthians 15:10).

God accepts you with love divine. His love for us is personal. God's love for you is reality seen at the cross of Jesus (Romans 5:8). He died for your sins. His sacrifice takes away all your sins (1 John 1:7). His resurrection gives believers life abundant and everlasting. God accepts you by faith in Christ (Romans 5:1). God's love for you is forever (Romans 8:38-39). 

The Holy Spirit In You

The Bible teaches that God is everywhere. He is omnipresent. However, God's will is to indwell believers. He makes His home in our hearts. Believers in Jesus Christ become the house of God. We are God's temple. The Holy Spirit indwells you. Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God (1 Corinthians 6:19).

The Holy Spirit is in all who truly believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit indwells us to do God's will. He changes our hearts. He gives us new desires. God works in us according to His good pleasure. For it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure (Philippians 2:13). God is pleased with us, because the Holy Spirit is working in us.

The Holy Spirit is in our hearts. That is your mind, will, and emotions. He is doing more in us than we can understand. He is always doing more than we ask or think (Ephesians 3:20). The Lord will use our lives to bring glory to His name. The Holy Spirit gives us the ability to do God's will.

Thank God today that the Holy Spirit is in you. Rest in the assurance that He will never leave you nor forsake you. Rely on God's ability to do more through you. Give God all the glory for what He does in you and through you. The Holy Spirit is in each and every believer.