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Monday
Read Nehemiah 9:1-37
In his book, The Knowledge of the Holy, A.W. Tozer writes, “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” If Tozer is right that what we think about God is what is most important about us, then it follows logically that it is essential for us to pursue and acquire knowledge about who God is. Reading narratives in the Old Testament has been one way that has helped me to acquire knowledge about who God is and what He is like. Narratives have helped me to learn about God’s character, His nature, His essence, His being, and His qualities.
For example, reading narratives like the one found in Nehemiah 9:1-37 has helped me to see how essential it is to read my Bible daily so that I can learn to think rightly about God, which has significantly influenced how I live my life. Thinking rightly about God has shaped who I am and how I interact with people and the world around me.
In Nehemiah 9:1-37, there are more than a dozen attributes of God woven throughout the narrative. Read through the passage to see how many you can find. Of the attributes you were able to find, which ones have had a significant impact in your life, shaping who you are today? Which ones are you most grateful for?
In Knowing God, J.I. Packer asserts, “We are cruel to ourselves if we try to live in this world without knowing about the God whose world it is and who runs it. The world becomes a strange, mad, painful place, and life in it is a disappointing and unpleasant business for those who do not know about God. Disregard the study of God and you sentence yourself to stumble and blunder through life blindfolded, as it were, with no sense of direction and no understanding of what surrounds you. This way you can waste your life and lose your soul.”
Questions
Do you believe knowing the attributes of God will enable you to know Him better? Can you identify a time in your life where your knowledge of a specific attribute of God helped you through a trial or hardship?
Prayer
Stephen and Kate Clark and C2C Ministries
Pray over those who applied to be C2C missionaries. Pray that the right ones would be sent and that joining one of C2C teams would bear fruit. Pray over our State-side staff as Stephen and Kate discern who should be launched overseas. Pray that they would prepare new staff well for entering into a life of cross-cultural ministry.
Tuesday
Read Genesis 37:1-36; 45:1-15
Imagine being blindfolded and then led through a giant maze by a voice at the other end of the maze. How successful do you think you will be at getting from the starting point to the exit? Will your success in life depend on you or on “The Voice” leading you through it?
When Joseph was young, God revealed His design for his life in a dream. Joseph told his brothers about the dream, which created friction between them. As a result, they sold him to Ishmaelite traders, who then sold him to Potiphar in Egypt. But God’s favor was on Joseph. Potiphar put him in charge of his entire household and everything he owned. Potiphar’s wife, however, falsely accused Joseph of trying to rape her. Joseph was then put in prison. Once again God’s favor was on Joseph. The warden placed him over everything that happened in the prison. While in prison, Joseph
interpreted the dreams of two of his fellow prisoners. When Pharoah had dreams that none of his magicians or wise men were able to interpret, it was Joseph who was called on for the task. After giving the interpretation, Pharoah put Joseph in charge of the entire land of Egypt because he could find no one else filled with the Spirit of God (Genesis 38-41).
Joseph’s life was like a maze; it took many different turns over the course of his life. At times this probably made him feel as though only dead ends existed and that a way out seemed hopeless, if not impossible. Have you ever felt this way?
We do not have as much knowledge as God, who is omniscient. We have a very small perspective compared to God’s view on life. As such, we need the Spirit of God to live in this world. We need to be quiet and really listen to know His instructions. When we listen to His voice leading us, we stay on the right path. In contrast, when we don’t listen or move too rashly, we fall off the path that leads to success in life.
Questions
What did Joseph know about God that led to how he responded to his brothers years later?
Did his brothers have an accurate view of God? How did their view of God impact their actions? What attributes of God did his brothers overlook, ignore, or dismiss as proven by their actions towards Joseph?
Prayer
Stephen and Kate Clark and C2C Ministries
Pray for the overseas teams in Indonesia, Japan and India. Kate and Stephen are so thankful for their language progress! Pray that they would have endurance and patience in ministry. Pray for the locals during this outreach ministry—a new believer in Indonesia, and those in seeker Bible studies in all of the countries.
Wednesday
Read Daniel 1-2
Imagine you have been kidnapped and taken to a foreign country. Your kidnappers give you a new name, force you to learn their language and culture, and then put you to work for their government. How would you respond? How would this affect the way you think about God?
In 605 B.C. Nebuchadnezzar became king of Babylon. He besieged Jerusalem, making Judah a vassal state. To demonstrate his dominance and power, Nebuchadnezzar took many of Jerusalem’s men and women to Babylon as captives. Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah were among this group of captives. They had been chosen to serve in the king’s palace and taught the language and literature of their captors.
Although Daniel was in a culture that did not honor God, he still obeyed God’s laws. Daniel refused to defile himself with the royal food and wine either because it was forbidden by Jewish law or because accepting the king’s food and drink was the first step toward depending on his gifts and favors. Daniel was able to remain faithful because he didn’t just know about God, but he knew God. In daily life, we face many seemingly impossible situations that would be hopeless if we had to handle them with our limited strength. But knowing God’s character, His nature, His essence, His being, and His qualities can change that.
Daniel also experienced God’s wisdom and power in a very tangible way. When Nebuchadnezzar had a dream that none of his magicians, astrologers, or sorcerers could tell him what was in the dream nor give him the interpretation, God revealed Nebuchadnezzar’s dreams to Daniel and gave him the interpretation. When we have encounters with God, experiencing some aspect of His character, nature, essence, being, and qualities, as Daniel did, it moves us from knowledge about God to knowledge of God. I would contend that it was Daniel’s knowledge of God’s attributes that influenced how he chose to handle King Nebuchadnezzar’s decree to kill the wise men of Babylon (see Daniel 2:14-23).
Questions
What attributes of God would you say influenced the way Daniel responded to his circumstances? Have you allowed your circumstances and experiences to move you from knowledge about God’s attributes to knowledge of God?
Prayer
Stephen and Kate Clark and C2C Ministries
Pray for Stephen’s new ministries at the church that the men’s group would be the beginning of total freedom in areas of addiction, and that more and more men in the community would hear about the group and join. Pray that the new Bible study would foster deeper community and deeper relationships with Jesus.
Thursday
Read Proverbs 15:3; Hebrews 4:13; Daniel 4:35
God is Omnipresent, Omniscient, and Omnipotent.
In his book, The Knowledge of the Holy, A.W. Tozer writes, “God is our environment as the sea is to the fish and the air to the bird.” God is everywhere. There is no place God is not. He is near to everything, next to everyone. No one is ever alone because God is always everywhere. He is both near and far. He is to the north, south, east, and west all at the same time (Psalm 139:7-10).
God knows all things. There is nothing that God does not know. He knows all that can be known. He possesses all knowledge. He knows the past, present, and future. God cannot be surprised or amazed. Nothing new ever enters His mind. He knows everything about you. There is nothing about you that He does not know. There is nothing that is hidden from Him (Psalm 139:1-4).
How comforting it is to know that God knows us completely and that knowledge does not alter the love He has for us. Take a moment to ponder and really think about that. God knows you completely and still wants to be in intimate fellowship with you (Isaiah 54:10; Ephesians 3:17, 18, 19).
God is all-powerful. All power that exists has its origin in God. He is the Source. It all belongs to Him. While He may share His power, He never relinquishes any of it (Isaiah 43:11, 12, 13).
A.W. Tozer writes, “Since He has at His command all the power in the universe, the Lord God Omnipotent can do anything as easily as anything else. All His acts are done without effort. He expends no energy that must be replenished. His self-sufficiency makes it unnecessary for Him to look outside of Himself for a renewal of strength. All power required to do all that He wills to do lies in undiminished fullness in His own infinite being.” (The Knowledge of the Holy)
Questions
How does knowing that God is omnipresent, omniscient, and omnipotent impact your daily life—your relationships at home, at church, at work, at school, and in your community? Does the love that God has for you influence your interactions with the people you encounter every day?
Prayer
Stephen and Kate Clark and C2C Ministries
Pray for the international friends in Baton Rouge! There’s a huge Japanese community there, and Stephen and Kate want to befriend more of them and share Jesus with them. Pray for Kate as she navigates a ministry schedule with the Clark’s baby!
Friday
Read 2 Kings 18-19; Daniel 3
Have you ever been in a situation where you received information about a person and believed it? Then one day you met the person and had the opportunity to get to know them for yourself. As you spent time getting to know them, you realized they were different from what you had been told and from what you had come to believe about them.
This can happen in our relationship with God. We hear other people talking about God and we may believe what they say about Him. But if we take the time to get to know the God of the Bible for ourselves, we might discover that He is different from what others have said about Him. Getting to know God for ourselves, as He has revealed Himself to us through the Bible, creation, and our experiences, can and should influence how we live.
When Hezekiah was confronted by the king of Assyria, it was his knowledge of God’s attributes that influenced his actions. Upon hearing the report about Sennacherib’s plans for Judah, he went to the Temple of the LORD and prayed. In contrast, because the king of Assyria’s knowledge about God’s character, nature, essence, being, and qualities were inaccurate, it cost him his life.
King Nebuchadnezzar had witnessed the power of God when he had Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego thrown into a fiery furnace and they came out unharmed. The king’s misconception of the attributes of God led to his bout of insanity. God humbled Nebuchadnezzar to show that He alone is sovereign. Once Nebuchadnezzar corrected how he thought about God, his sanity returned to him, and he was restored as head of his kingdom.
Joseph’s ten brothers lacked an understanding of the attributes of God. They did not consider that God is omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent. As such, their inaccurate thinking about God led to wrong actions. In contrast, Joseph’s right thinking about God led to him forgiving his brothers for the wrong they had done to him.
Questions
How has your knowledge of the attributes of God influenced past actions and behavior? Now that you have come to the end of this week’s devotionals, do you think your knowledge of God’s attributes will influence your actions and behavior in the present and the future? If so, how?
Prayer
Stephen and Kate Clark and C2C Ministries
Pray as always for continued healing and growth for the Clarks’ baby, Ridley. He is 6 1/2 months now, and his lungs have made amazing progress. He’s already had a cold and COVID, and the Clarks are thankful to see that his little body could handle these illnesses! Pray for his immune system to grow strong for this coming winter and future illnesses!
Sources
- J. I. Packer, Knowing God (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1973).
- W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy (New York: HarperCollins Publishers Inc., 1961).
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