Math has never been my thing.

The sight of those Everyday Mathematics books in elementary school made me break out in a cold sweat. Every time math class began, so did my countdown to its conclusion.

I didn’t realize it till later on, but I don’t hate doing math. I actually find the routine step-by-step procedure involved in math somewhat soothing. Getting to a place where I understood and knew the concepts was the battle for me.

Sometimes it felt like I needed to hit triple sevens on a slot machine in order to understand that day’s lesson. In other words, mastering the lesson was out of my hands. Not all the information I needed had been revealed.

I used to believe that knowing God worked the same way. That the people who really knew Him had some mystical experience with Him. This resulted in their unshakeable confidence in the existence of an unseen, almighty God. It was as if knowing God was a game of slots. Pull the lever and hope it happens to you.

Unbeknownst to me, I was already on the journey of getting to know God. I began to realize that unlike some algebraic formula, you can’t know God just by knowing about Him. This wasn’t code for some mysterious experience not subject to anyone’s questioning, either. In a way, getting to know God operates similarly to how you get to know your neighbor. However, as J.I. Packer puts it, “the more complex the object, the more complex is the knowing of it.”

To know someone as complex as God requires a trustworthy source. And as self-disclosure is needed in order to get to know someone, the same is true of God. That’s when it really started to sink in. The Bible is God’s self-disclosure, that we might know Him.

I didn’t need some special experience or sign to know God. I didn’t even need to see Him with my own eyes. All I needed to know, He already revealed to me in His written word. Skepticism that God’s word actually is God’s word was answered by external evidence. Things like it’s unified message despite being written by forty different authors over a timeframe of about 1500 years, or archaeological alibis found in the present day. Not to mention changed lives.

It is in His word God reveals to us that it isn’t just a ritual Bible reading that allows us to know Him. He tells us the Bible is a means to an end; the end being faith in Jesus Christ. It is here we learn that we cannot move beyond knowing about God until we know and believe in the one He has sent. That one being Jesus Christ, the substitutionary payment for our sin that separates us from Him. When we decide to follow Jesus, our lives truly begin. As He prayed,

“Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” John 17:3

Not only is knowing God possible, but as Packer simply states, it is “the main business that you are here for…” After all, God did make us for himself. Not much in life will make any sense until we know Him. This isn’t just for the lucky few, but God’s words and the “gospel” contained within them are for everyone.

Open up a Bible. Pray and ask God to reveal Himself to you. Seek Him and you will find Him.

Knowing God by J.I. Packer. Pages 34 and 35.