Now you are no longer a slave but God's own child. And since you are His child, God has made you His heir. Before you Gentiles knew God, you were slaves to so-called gods that do not even exist. So now that you know God (or should I say, now that God knows you), why do you want to go back again and become slaves once more to the weak and useless spiritual principles of this world? (Galatians 4:7-9 NLT)
There is a tension in the Christian life that seems to be never ending, at least for me. Paul points out in Galatians that it is not we who know God; it is, rather, that God knows us.
The quest of the Christian is to learn more about God every day -- to get to know him better. The more we know about God, the more we are like him or can strive to be like him. That is why, as we grow in Christ, we gradually discard from our lives the trappings of life without Christ.
That doesn't mean that we have nothing but a cross on the wall and the 700 Club on TV. But it means that we are increasingly uncomfortable with the things of the world.
We constantly evaluate our lives from what we know of God's perspective. We learn that what is important is not what we want; but, rather what God wants. And life is complicated. First, we cut out the sin in our lives. Then there is room for doing God's will.
Until we stop craving sin, we cannot begin to know God.
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