How well do you know your God?

How well do you know your God? This is a very important question, on which a lot depends. That's why we want to take a closer look at it. Psalm 145:3,5 says: "Great is Jehovah, and exceedingly to be praised; and his greatness is unsearchable.. [...] I will speak of the glorious splendour of thy majesty, and of thy wondrous works."

This verse shows us that the greatness of God is beyond our comprehension. We can never fully comprehend God, because He is simply too great and too glorious. Nevertheless, God wants us to reflect on His greatness and to grow and increase in the knowledge of God. Then he also wants us to tell others about His greatness and about the great things that He does.

Of course, we can only do this to the degree that we know God and have experienced Him personally. Daniel 11:32 says, "the people that know their God shall be strong, and shall act.” This shows us that our knowledge of God has direct consequences for our lives, because to the degree that we have come to know God, we will prove ourselves strong and act accordingly. We will see this again in a moment.

In Matthew 16, the Lord Jesus asks His disciples an important question in verse 15, saying, "Who do you say that I am?" What could you say about the greatness of the Son of God and about the greatness of God in and of itself if someone asked you about it right now? A lot depends on the answer to this question for your practical life of faith.

The better you know God, the more you will trust Him and the more you will expect from Him. The apostle Paul once said: "I know whom I have believed" (2Ti 1:12). This had very practical consequences for his life of faith.

Peter wrote in 2 Peter 1:2, "Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord." This means that the better we get to know God, the more we will be able to enjoy His grace and peace in our lives. This is wonderful.

The attitude of our heart before God is also related to our image of God. Job was a man who had a bit of pride in his heart until the moment he really got to know God. Then he said, "I had heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye sees you, wherefore I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes" (cf. Job 42:5,6). In the light of the greatness of God Job became a humble man.

Our image of God is also related to the service we do for Him. We can give a man-centered ministry or we can give a God-centered ministry. We can preach a man-centered gospel or we can preach a God-centered gospel, the gospel of the glory of the blessed God or the gospel of the glory of Christ, which is ultimately about the greatness and glory of God.

Of course, our image of God is also related to our worship. The better we get to know Him and the more we know about Him, the better we can worship Him for who He is in Himself. It is God's desire that we worship Him not only for what He has done, but also for who He is in Himself.

That's why it's definitely worth taking a look at God's attributes, His characteristics, His moral character traits.

J.P.S.