How Can You Know God?
Knowing Your Creator
Do you think it is possible to know the God who created you? If you want to get to know another person, how do you do that? You would spend time with them, talk to them, and learn about them. In order to know God, you must avoid your pre-conceived thoughts about Him and see what the Bible (God's Word) tells us all about Him. Otherwise, you are creating your own God based on your own understanding. The Bible allows you to know God in more than just an intellectual way, but also in a personal way.
God Knows You
God knows everything about you (Psalm 139) and wants you to join Him in Heaven when you die. You may even say that you care about God and want to go to Heaven, but have very little room in your life for Him. You may think God will let you into Heaven because you were a good person here on Earth. Please don't make that mistake (Titus 3:5). Read on to find out how the Bible says we can know God and spend eternity with Him.
Separated From God
The reason why many people don't know God in the way we were intended to know Him is because the sin in our life separates us from God (Isaiah 59:2). He loves us (John 3:16), but hates our sin (Proverbs 6:16-19). God does not exist to pamper us and give us everything we want. He is righteous (Deuteronomy 32:4) and holy and will judge (2 Timothy 4:1-10) our sin severely. Think about how many times you broke God's laws. You will be responsible for every time you didn't put God first in your life, used God's name in a careless way, didn't honor your parents, hated another person, had a lustful thought, stole anything, and told a lie (Exodus 20). These are some of the 10 commandments that God set as rules for us to live by.
Guilty Of Breaking God's Law
If you are honest, you can probably admit to committing lots of sins in your life. We have a conscience and know when we do wrong (Romans 2:14-16). God will judge your sins severely and just saying that you are sorry is not enough. If you were a criminal in court, the judge would penalize you for your crime no matter how sorry you were. Imagine standing before a holy and perfect God with countless infractions. Each of us falls short of God's desire for us to be sinless and has resulted in a broken relationship with God (Romans 3:23). The result of our rebellion (Romans 6:23) against God is eternity apart from Him (2 Thessalonians 1:8-9) in a real place called Hell (Matthew 10:28). Because of how severe sin is, we can't be allowed into Heaven with a holy and sinless God no matter how good we are.
The Good News
The good news is that God has provided a way for us to know Him and restore our relationship with Him. According to the Bible, the only way to know God is through Jesus Christ (1 Peter 3:18). He doesn't claim to be one of many ways, but the only way to God. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through me'" (John 14:6). God loves us even though we do so many wrong things. "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). Jesus came to earth and lived a perfect sinless life and willingly accepted the penalty for our sins (1 Peter 2:21-24) He received the punishment that we deserved so we could be forgiven. After Jesus died, He rose three days later from the grave totally alive (John 20:25-28) and later went up to Heaven (Acts 1:9-11).
Trusting In Jesus
It's not enough to just believe these things are true. You must personally receive (place your trust in) Jesus to be the Lord of your life and trust that He will save you from your sin (no matter how severe). You need to be willing to repent (turn away from your sins) and put your trust in Christ to be forgiven. That is how you get to know God in the way that He wants you to know Him. "But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name" (John 1:12). You get into Heaven by accepting what Jesus did for you, not by doing enough good deeds in your life. That is crucial to understand. The Bible says: "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast" (Ephesians 2:8-9). Salvation is a gift--not something you earn. If someone wants to give you a gift, you don't offer to somehow earn it--you just gladly accept it!
What Choice Will You Make?
You don't know when you will die, so please think seriously about where you will spend eternity. We should be so grateful that Jesus died for us. We deserve Hell, but we get to go to Heaven if we are willing to repent from our sins and trust in Jesus Christ. He paid the fine for a debt that He didn't owe. How amazing is that?! All you need to do is receive that gift.
If you want to know God personally, please continue on to read how to become a Christian.
If you choose to not follow Christ, you are choosing to go your own way which result in serious consequences.