Hosea 6:3 (NLT): “Oh that we might know the Lord.”

Hosea 6:6 (NLT): “I want you to know me more than I want burnt offerings.”

Wow! To think that we mere mortals can know almighty God, who created the universe and knows all things! According to verse 6 our relationship to Him is more important than what we do for Him. This word “know” doesn’t mean just knowing about God but knowing Him personally.

In the New Testament, Paul said, “That I may know Him (experientially, becoming more thoroughly acquainted with Him, understanding the remarkable wonders of His person more completely). (Phil 3:10 AMP).

That would seem hard to attain. How can we know God? Well, John tells us in 1 John 4:7 (TPT) that, “everyone who loves is fathered by God and experiences an intimate knowledge of Him.” So, developing our “love life” would be a good place to start and of course we grow in our knowledge of God by spending time with Him (just like we would with any human person we wanted to get to know). It all gets back to the Bible and prayer!

"God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble. Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time" (1 Peter 5:5b-6; NKJV).

God clearly has no time for pride and arrogance in people, but he will bless, use and promote the humble person. To be humble, as the word is used in both the Old and New Testament, literally means to make low. It describes a person who avoids arrogance, self exaltation and self promotion. A humble person is one who is submitted to God. Such a person realizes that all he has, is, and does is entirely a product of Jesus in his life. Moses was described as more humble than any man (Numbers 12:3). John the Baptist was content to tell his disciples that he must decrease as Jesus increased (John 3:30) and Jesus' humbled Himself to the point of washing the feat of His disciples (John 13:1-17). Jesus also instructed His disciples that if they desired to be great they should first learn to serve (Mark 10:43b). Jesus served to the extent of giving His life as a sacrifice for our sins (Mark 10:45b). Wow, lots to think about.

Blessed is the man who's: "delight is in the law of the Lord, And in His law he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree Planted by the rivers of water, That brings forth its fruit in its season, Whose leaf also shall not wither; And whatever he does shall prosper" (Psalm 1:2-3; NKJV).

The Word of God is truth (John 8:31-32) and life (John 6:63).The Word is powerful (Hebr 4:12) and works in us (1 Thess 2:13) to convict us of sin (Psalm 119:11), cleanse us of sin (John 15:3), open the door for salvation (Rom 1:16) and change us to be more like Jesus each day (2 Cor 3:18).

God's Word always achieves its purpose (Isaiah 55:11), is a joy and delight to the heart (Jer 15:16), heals (Psalm 107:20), never passes away (Matt 24:35) and brings success and prosperity (Joshua 1:8). We should immerse ourselves in His inspired word, our Bible (Col 3:16; Joshua 1:8; 2 Tim 3:16-17), teach it and live it (Matt 4:4)! The results are wonderful.

I love psalm 8, it extols the glory of God, especially in creation. When I was reading it the other day verse 2 caught my attention:

“Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants You have ordained strength, because of Your enemies, that you may silence the enemy and the avenger.”

Then I remembered that Jesus quoted this verse in Matt 21:16, except He changed one of the words; He used “praise” instead of “strength”. So, according to what Jesus said, if we praise God with childlike praise our enemies will be silenced. In other words when we are going through trials and difficult times in our lives praise is a powerful form of spiritual warfare. (Incidentally, have you ever seen children praising the Lord? They do it with all their hearts, not wondering about what their friends are thinking.)

We actually see an example of this in the New Testament when Paul and Silas were in prison with their feet in the stocks and they were praying and singing hymns to God (Acts 16:25-26). I’m sure most of you know what happened – a mighty earthquake caused all of the prison doors to be opened up and chains came off! Praising God in the middle of adversity is not an easy thing to do but we do it because we know that God is in control and: “All things work together for good to those who love God (Rom 8:28 NKJV).