For this Reason: Growing in the Knowledge of God
The purpose of this series is to live a life worthy of the Lord, and we have used Colossians 1:9-14
For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives,[a] 10 so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, 11 being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, 12 and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you[b] to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. 13 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
Scripture memorization is a tool to get the world of God in is so that when life comes at us, the word of God can come through us. For the remainder of this series, we are going to challenge you to memorize this scripture. Today we are going to focus on the second part of verse 10: growing in the knowledge of God.
Last week we looked at the portion before that: bearing fruit in every good work. We learned that bearing fruit is not about trying harder, but about being more engrained in our relationship with God and allowing the Holy Spirit to work through us. It’s about the dependency and humility to lay down our lives in service of Jesus.
2 Corinthians 3:18
And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate[a] the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
Our knowledge of God grows as our understanding of him grows, our desire to live a life worthy of the Lord requires us to understand Him and His will for our lives. The way we respond to challenges in our lives is a directly correlated to our understanding of who God is in our lives. What we understand about God shapes our ability to receive the grace that we need to overcome life’s hardships.
AW Tozer: “what comes into our mind when we think about God is the most important thing about us”. Our understanding of who he is shapes everything about our lives, it’s our central belief system that drives all our decisions and reactions.
The older we get, the harder it seems to get to stand in faith in impossible situations. Our experiences can make us flinch, whereas before we would have stood tall. Our resiliency
1517 was the birth of the Protestant Reformation, where the word of God became available to all. Sola Scriptura was a principle that meant “scripture alone”. Martin Luther understood that the people of God needed to be able to read and study the word of God for themselves. The notion of this principle relies of the fact that the Bible is complete and can be interpreted through itself. It is because of this that we can use the bible to study and understand the characteristics of God. Our clarity comes from the consistency of scripture alone.
2 Timothy 3:14-17
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the servant of God[a] may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
It is through the power of the word of God that we understand him and are equipped for the work he has set for us.
Jesus himself, in Matthew 4 used the word of God to defeat the distortion that the tempter was trying to feed him. “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread”. Jesus responded, “Man shall not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God”. He resisted the enemy by quoting what God really said.
The enemy always uses a partial understanding. The weapon is to respond with God’s truth, and that’s what the bible is. It’s the full armor of God that allows us to stand against the devil’s schemes.
Ephesians 6: 10-17
The Armor of God
10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
“The bible is the cradle wherein Christ is laid”- Martin Luther. Everything in the Bible points to our need for him. If we really want to take a step deeper in our un
Theosu is a great resource to help you in your understanding and knowledge of the character of God. Three disciplines that need to be alive in us as we learn about Jesus:
Memorize
Meditate
Talk
This is the simplest formula to study and understand more about the word of God and in turn God himself. The bigger God gets in you, the smaller the storm gets in you.