Biography Of God: A Six-Day Devotional By Skip HeitzigSample

God Can Be Known—Personally

The second great truth Hebrews 11 tells us about God is that He is personal. Notice how the writer of Hebrews framed it: "He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him" (v. 6). God can interact with those whom He has made. He is able to love, to care for, to reward those who sincerely pursue Him. He has personality. And the Bible reveals that He wants to be known.

If we're honest, we hunger for God to be that way. We long to know and be known by our Maker. That was the apostle Paul's heart cry, even after thirty years of serving and walking with God—"that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings" (Philippians 3:10).

Acknowledging our hunger to know God leads to an important question: How do you have a personal relationship with God? After all, there's no one like Him. Such a complex and unique being as God can't be easy to know. Even though evidence of His personality exists all around us, He can't be seen. Every buck ultimately stops with Him, yet He also knows all the details of your life. So how do you get to know Him?

Maybe you have doubts and questions about God that threaten to overshadow any belief you could have that He's a personal God you can actually know. Because of your experiences, upbringing, or education, God has been nothing but bad news to you. I can't—and won't try to—explain why that's been the case in your life, but I can offer you what God offers: hope.

That hope is this: whether you're a skeptic, a seeker, or a saint, God sees you, knows you, and loves you. All skeptics are humans made in God's image, and their honest search for truth is admirable. All seekers are responding in some way to the call of eternity God has placed in every human heart. And all saints—that is, believers in Christ as Lord and Savior—battle doubt at some point. God is not put off by the honest doubt of His kids, as long as we do not doubt what He says about Himself. Trust is the anchor of any healthy relationship, and God is completely worthy of ours.

If you fall along the line of skeptic or seeker, know that at some point you'll have to decide whether to become a saint. If you choose to become a saint, you'll discover that knowing and loving God—and being completely known and loved by Him in return—is what life is all about.

You have a Maker who knows you better than you know yourself—but He has never settled for just knowing you. He wants you to know Him too. He is real, and He loves you. You are a crucial part of His story. To Him, you were worth dying on a cross for.