To Truly KNOW Him

I am a swimmer! Are you?

When my three sisters and I were growing up, everywhere we went adults would ask us, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” As far back as the third grade, I have always wanted to be a registered dental hygienist. As a child, my son wanted to be a garbage man; then as he grew, he wanted to be a firefighter. My daughter always wanted to be a singer. As we all grew up, some of our plans changed . . . but we are all swimmers!

Sunday morning during the worship service my three-year-old granddaughter leaned over to her daddy (my son) and said, “When I get older, I want to be a swimmer.” He soon leaned over to me to share the news. When he told me what she said, secretly I wondered why that news couldn’t have waited until the service was over until he added that she had pointed over to the baptistery! Immediately tears came to my eyes because before all five of my grandstinkers were born, I have prayed that in God’s timing all of them will come to a saving faith in Christ . . . and be a “swimmer”. So far, my oldest is the only swimmer.

When we were created, God’s design was to have an intimate, personal relationship with us but then sin entered. Don’t blame Eve, we’ve sinned, too.

Sin caused brokenness, a broken relationship with our Father, but there is Good News!

He didn’t leave us there in our brokenness! He provided a Savior, if we will repent and believe.

You see, the Holy Spirit convicts your heart. You realize you are a sinner, in need of a Savior. You believe in your heart that Jesus died on a cross for your sins, was buried, but praise God, rose on the third day and is seated at the right hand of the Father interceding for you and me.

You ask Him to come live and reign in your life as you recover and pursue God’s original design which was to have an intimate, personal relationship with Him . . . to truly KNOW Him.

Not just to know about Him. We need to know Him personally.

And when you KNOW Him, you LOVE Him, and when you LOVE Him, you will OBEY Him.

And when you OBEY Him, you will make disciples of Jesus who live on mission.

The GREATEST thing you can do for someone is to share that simple message of HOPE.

And when someone comes to faith in Jesus, knowing Him as their personal Savior, they will want to share that news with the world. To tell the world that you are a follower of Christ you will be baptized; then, you will be a swimmer, as my granddaughter put it.

I pray you will share that simple message of hope with someone this week so that when they make that step of faith and accept Jesus’ work on the cross they will become a swimmer, too . . . On the Journey.

Written by Linda Cooper