Paul - “All the while, you will grow as you learn to know God better and better.” (Colossians 1:10)
What are some of the primary goals that you have for 2025? Many people have goals for 2025 regarding improving their health, their finances, their relationships, or their standing in regards to their work. Others have goals regarding their fun or recreational experiences. But the number one goal of our lives as Christians should be to get to know God better in 2025 than we knew Him in previous years. Paul mentions that in today’s Scripture verse. And he said in Philippians 3:10 that the major goal of his life was to continue deepening his knowledge of the Lord in every way.
We initially get to “know the Lord” when we receive Jesus as our Savior through repenting of our sins and putting our faith in Him (John 1:12). When that happens, God’s Spirit comes into our lives (Acts 2:38, Ephesians 1:13-14), and we begin a relationship with the Lord. Until then, we only knew about the Lord, but after we’ve met the Lord, we should work on developing or deepening our relationship with Him.
What does it take to develop or deepen our relationships with others? It takes thinking about them, talking with them, listening to them, spending time with them, affirming them, and appreciating them. These steps we take to deepen our relationship with others are also what it takes to deepen our relationship with the Lord.
We need to think about the Lord constantly - thinking about how great He is, how good He is to us, how much He loves us, and His promises to us. We need to constantly talk to Him about decisions we need to make and other things. We need to be listening to the Lord as we read His Word, converse with mature Christians, and as He speaks to us during our prayer times. And we need to prioritize spending time with the Lord in daily prayer and worship and in weekly worship experiences with other Christians who are also seeking to know God better.
Paul said Christians will grow spiritually if they get to know God better. That means if we make “knowing God better” our number one goal this year, we will “thrive in 2025.”
Prayer - Lord, give me a great desire to “know You better and better,” and show me the steps I need to take to make “knowing You better” a reality in my life in 2025.
Reflection - On a scale of 1 to 10, how strong would I rate my relationship with the Lord? What steps must I take to deepen my relationship with God in 2025?
