Psalm 46: 10 Be still and know that I am God.

Psalm 100:3 Know that the Lord, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his;…

Okay, so we know a lot of God’s commands to us:  Wait/ Fear not/Fret not/ Love/ Do justice/Trust and obey/ Honor/ Give/ Baptize/Teach/ Pray/Be strong/Take refuge/Lean on/Count it pure joy/Set your mind on things above….

We could go on and on.  But have you ever considered that we are commanded to KNOW certain things?  I had never seen this before yesterday.  If God is actually commanding us to know certain truths, then it really IS true that we are to love God with our minds as well as our heart and our soul and our strength.  Mark 12:30 says and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength’

Why would it be important to know certain things?  Knowing doctrine or truths about God and knowing his character are fundamental to being able to love, trust and eventually obey God.  We can’t love someone without knowing content about him.  And why would we trust anything or anybody with our eternal future or even our life without knowing if it/he is trustworthy.  Knowledge IS vital. This world is a corrupted and dangerous place; we face dangers within and without. There are choices to be made.    Life and death await us as consequences for what we do and do not know.

Finally, knowing is not just an instantaneous action commanded by God.  Inherent in knowing is learning and study.  That is why we have to invest time so that we CAN know the truths of God, the story of God, the promises of God, the character of God.  And once we know about God, we need to keep telling ourselves over and over again all this good news.  To obey God’s command to KNOW will be an activity that lasts a lifetime.