Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves the child born of Him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and follow His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome. For whoever has been born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world: our faith. – 1 John 5:1-4
Selwyn Hughes once gave three benefits of keeping our gaze continually focused on God. He said that:
- The more we study God, the more we will want to be like Him. Often little boys who admire their fathers will seek to emulate their every characteristic or mannerism. With men, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and with God, it is a sincere form of praise.
- The more we study God, the better we know ourselves. God is light and as we draw near to Him every blemish is revealed. Holiness embraced equals wickedness illuminated.
- The more we study God, the clearer will be our perspective of the world. In this world of real-time reporting, every world crisis or emergency is continually paraded before us. To know God is to know His sovereignty, eternity, and peace no matter the environment.
How do you “spend” your time? It seems that we would all do well to spend a greater portion of it “studying” our marvelous and glorious God.
Too many Christians are fighting graduate school sins with a grammar school knowledge of God. – John Piper
