That I May Know You

My husband and I love watching the show "Hotel Impossible." It's a reality show where the host - an expert in managing hotels - goes to failing hotels and resorts to help them make their business better. Many times, the owners are on the brink of filing bankruptcy, and the show is their last hope for survival.

On pretty much every episode, the host asks the owner, "Have you ever run a hotel before? Have you worked in a hotel before?" Almost every time, the answer is "No." The owners have stayed at hotels, they've dreamed of running a hotel, but they have no knowledge of how to do it. They know nothing about the business, and it sets them up for failure.

So many times, Christians do the exact same thing. We know about God, but we have no real experiences with God.

We don't take the time to know God, and it sets us up for failure.

It's not enough to just know about God. It's not enough to casually mention Him from time to time, but do nothing. We can't show up at church on Sunday morning, then ignore Him the rest of the week and expect to live out a strong faith every day. If we are truly following Christ, we want to know His Word, His commands, His ways - and we want to follow Him.

God tells us, over and over again, that He wants us to know Him. He longs for a relationship with us. He wants to bless us. Psalm 71:3 says that God is "a rock of habitation to which I may continually come." He is always there, waiting for us to come to Him. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob - the God whose spoken word created all that is and set the earth into motion - longs to have a relationship with us.

That's my motivation for morning time with God. Are there days I'd rather sleep late, stay comfortable in my warm bed and skip my time with God? Yes. Are there days I mess up and miss my time? Absolutely. But I strive every day to get up early and spend time with God, because more than anything, I want to know Him. I'm not perfect, and I never will be, but my prayer is that as I spend time with Him, I will know His ways - and most of all, that I will know Him.