On Knowing God

Last evening, my church started a study on the attibutes of God. We gather to plead for reformation on Wednesday nights, and we are basing our prayers for awakening on the character of our God. I gave seven reasons why we are studying the attributes of God by way of preface:

• God wants to be known. God does not like to be taken for granted.
• Our knowledge of God enhances our prayer life.
• There is no more important person or subject in the universe to study.
• In general, we lack knowledge of God today.
• To enjoy God, we must get to know God.
• The more we get to know God, the more we become like God. Beholding is becoming.
• Knowledge of God leads to obedience to God.

Then, I gave 3 "disclaimers":

• God is incomprehensible. There are attributes of God which we will never know. God can be understood, just not fully.
• The Bible is the only authoritative source on God.
• Knowing God is only possible because of the gospel.

Bonus quote from JI Packer's Knowing God: “The conviction behind this book is that ignorance of God—ignorance both of his ways and of the practice of communion with him—lies at the root of much of the church’s weakness today.”