No Greater Goal!

One thing the Lord has been dealing with me about in the past week or so is setting goals.  With that comes the objectives needed to achieve those goals.  Some will be much easier than others and will simply take a moment of fixing a situation while others will take time to achieve because they may require a change of habits or a change in focus and vision.   Yet J. I. Packer in Knowing God, puts into words what the greatest goal should be and may it be the central goal that we strive and battle for:

What makes life worthwhile is having a bit enough objective, something which catches our imagination and lays hold of our allegiance, and this the Christian has in a way that no other person has.  For what higher, more exalted, and more compelling goal can there be than to know God?

What is so beautiful about this reality is that as Jeremiah says, "Le him that glories glory in this, that he understands and knows me (God)", this should bring joy and excitement to our hearts and lives like nothing else.  But it gets better, because once we realize that God knew us before we knew Him it brings a whole new dynamic to our life.  Yet there is another element that makes it even more humbling, that in God knowing us, He knew us when we were enslaved to sin, and still by His Sovereign Grace came and brought us into a relationship to Him. Here are just a few of the verses which point to this reality that God knew us long before we even realized we loved Him:

Now that you know God-or rather are known by God - Galatians 4:9

 And the LORD said to Moses, 'I am pleased with you and I know you by name - Exodus 33:17

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart - Jeremiah 1:5 

I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me...and I lay down my life for the sheep...My sheep listen to my voice, I know them...They shall never perish - John 10:14-15, 27-28 

J. I. Packer again gives a wonderful definition of this know:

The word 'know', when used of God in this way is a sovereign-grace word, pointing to God's initiative in loving, choosing, redeeming, calling and preserving.

So what higher goal could we seek to achieve than knowing God intimately? The answer to that is obvious, none, because once we realize God's sovereign Grace drives us closer to Him, then we can do nothing but realize that the greatest goal in this life is enjoy God and know Him more intimately than anything else.  Yes, the enemy and our minds will try to bring doubt and fear, but God's grace is far more efficacious than anything the enemy, this world, or even our minds can throw at Him.  May we all strive to this goal...to truly know God, or better yet be known by God.