Want to know God?

First Baptist Church, Talladega

Many people spend their entire lives frantically and futilely searching for meaning and purpose. Maybe that’s why you were drawn to this column. If so, then I’ve got good news for you. God loves you and wants to have a meaningful relationship with you. The Bible says, “God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

You see God created you and me to have a relationship with Him, but we have chosen, by our own will, to break that relationship. Like lost sheep, we have each turned to our own way of doing things, ignoring God in the process (Isa. 53:6). The Bible calls this sin, and it is our sin that separates us from God. The apostle Paul wrote that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23).

We are lost and we are powerless to save ourselves. The Bible teaches, “[B]y grace you have been saved, through faith — and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God — not by works, so that no one can boast” (Eph. 2:8–9).
Grace is God loving you enough to take the initiative in sending His Son, Jesus Christ, to be your Savior.

If you want to know God, then you must respond to His gracious offer of salvation by faith. Faith is a response of the total person — your mind, will and emotions. To have faith in God is to have an understanding of the gospel story, that “God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them” (2 Cor. 5:19).
But faith is more than just knowledge. It is also making a decision about what to do with that knowledge. It is trusting Christ alone for our salvation.

The Scripture says, “[I]f you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved” (Rom. 10:9). God created you for a meaningful relationship with Him. Will you, by faith, receive His offer of eternal life? Then say with all of your being, “Yes, Lord. I want to have a relationship with you. By faith, I accept Jesus as my Savior.”