I closed my eyes at my desk this morning, silently asking God for His help before launching into work. In the stillness, my mind ran through the day’s tasks: meetings, projects, writing, meal-planning, cleaning, hosting, and more. And in response, this phrase came to mind: “That I may know Him.”
I knew that phrase: it comes from Philippians 3 where Paul says to his readers that whatever impressive things he accomplished in his past, he discards them for the sake of knowing Christ.
And I thought about the nature of my prayers: so often I am asking God to help me accomplish things. And that’s not a bad ask, but it’s stopping short. Am I asking to know God more at the end of them?
Why do we do what we do? Because we should? Because we’re driven and passionate? Because we want to leave a legacy, change the culture, build His kingdom? These are great, but if we’re not living and moving and breathing to know Him more, we’re stopping woefully short.
At the end of the day, I feel a sense of satisfaction if I complete most of the items on my to-do list (btw this rarely happens). But do I include knowing God more as a measure of my satisfaction this side of eternity? In Philippians 3, Paul describes knowing Christ as “infinite value” (3:8, NLT) and clarifies what knowing Him looks like: “to experience the mighty power that raised Him from the dead…to suffer with Him, sharing in His death, so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead” (3:10-11)!
I have to ask myself — and ask you — is this why you do what you do? Is this why you pray what you pray? Do you ask God to help you accomplish goals and complete tasks as ends in themselves or as means to know Him more?
If all I do is pray for God to help me do things, perhaps one day I will look back and count those things as worth far less than knowing Christ.
God, may what I do and why I do it be so that I may know You more.
Let’s pray prayers that go beyond the surface to the root: Christ, who is our real life.