There is equally great incentive to worship and love God in the thought that for some unfathomable reason, he wants me as his friend, and desires to be my friend, and has given his son to die for me in order to realize this purpose.” There is tremendous relief in knowing that his love to me is utterly realistic, based at every point on prior knowledge of the worst about me, so that no discovery now can disillusion him about me, in the way I am so often disillusioned about myself. There is unspeakable comfort in knowing that God is constantly taking knowledge of me in love, and watching over me for my good. One of my most favorite quotes of all time : So can we ever truly feel known? And the answer is ‘yes’, not by our peers or even our spouse, but we are known to the nth degree by God. We don’t dare share everything about ourselves for fear of what others might do or say. What’s more, not only do we seek to know God, but He knows us! One of the most basic and universal desires of humanity is to be known and to be accepted.

“And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.”- John 17:3 Packer says, “You can have all the right notions in your head without ever tasting in your heart the realities to which they refer.” That is pride, and God has no use for one who is self-sufficient. If all I do is harbor knowledge and puff myself up as one who “knows” things, that does nothing for my actual relationship with the Lord. This is a constant reminder to me, as I am one who loves learning and knowing things. Taking what we learn about God into praise to God. Moving our knowledge from our head to our heart. It begins with the distinction between knowing about God and actually knowing God. Spurgeon said, “I know nothing which can so comfort the soul so calm the swelling billows of sorrow and grief so speak peace to the winds of trial, as a devout musing upon the subject of the Godhead.”Īnd so we have this wonderful, Scripture-rich, book. If you do not currently own this book, you must buy it immediately! (This post is updated with the new 2023 reprint cover which also includes more Americanized language than the original 1973 version.)Ĭ.H. It’s one you will read time after time and still see and learn new things.

This is one of my favorite books of all time.

Ji packer knowing god chapters