Psalm 36

Your love, Lord, reaches to the heavens,

your faithfulness to the skies.

6 Your righteousness is like the highest mountains,

Today, we're looking at knowing God...The God who created all!

Who do you know best in the world? Chances are there is somebody in the world that you know really well. You know what kind of music they like, their favorite movies, their hobbies, their dreams for the future, and what makes them get mad. You just get them...& they get you.

Sometimes knowing God is hard:

Think about the people you know best.

How did you get to know them so well?

Chances are you were a part of something together: you work together, "doing life" together, on a team together, gone through a bad or good experience together...or both!, or in a family together. But essentially, the people you know best all have one thing in common: There’s some part of life that you shared together.

When it comes to knowing God, it’s about us recognizing God and EXPERIENCING HIM

David. David is the most well-known king of Israel, and we are given more details about his life from childhood to death than we are about anyone else in the entire Bible.

But before David was a king, he was a shepherd. He was the youngest in his family, and his job was to take care of sheep and fight off predators who tried to attack them. He experienced creation, outside, saw God's character & power.

God is always present ! (lets keep our spiritual eyes open)

Think about the people you know best. Is there a formula to how you got to know them? Was it on your checklist? No, you were just around them. And you experienced life with them.

Every day, you and I pass by, through, and under beautiful things that the Creator has made. creation points to the Creator. If you remember that, even the random transitional moments of life will represent an opportunity for you.

God wants you to be more closely connected to Him. When we slow down and pay attention, that’s when we start to see what’s already true—that He’s close to

us always.

I have a very important question:

What is the best vending machine snack?

Have you ever prayed and gotten nothing?

*a sick family member to get better, but she got worse?

*My cousin: Janet (revolutionized my prayer life)

We’ve probably all asked: Does prayer even work?

This question almost always leads to more questions like:

Think about it. Chances are none of your other RELATIONSHIPS act like a vending machine. You don't only talk to your friends if you want something.

The verse

“The Lord is near to people who call on him with the right combination of fancy words.”

No, he says that the Lord is near to all who call on him. Think about that for a second. That means

prayer draws us near to God.

When you and I get to know God well enough to trust Him, prayer will simply remind us that He’s looking out for our best interest. It doesn’t mean we get what we want all the time. Sometimes God’s objective is different from ours.

When we trust God, we don’t fill in the gaps or silence with negative assumptions. When our prayers aren’t answered, we don’t assume that God has abandoned us. Why? Because we know Him. And that, quite simply, is what prayer does.

Goal in prayer: not to get everything we want!

Sometimes, however, it feels like we got the opposite of what we prayed for -(my cousin Janet)

But whatever the outcome, developing the habit of praying will help you know God better, which will help you trust His heart more.

...our Faith built, after trusting Him more, we become stronger Christians! Our Goal!

Take Away:

*We need to spend time experiencing God

*We need to view prayer differently