To Know God One Must Know Self

In order to understand God's Will, we must first understand who we are, what motivates us? What is at the centre of our intentions and who do we focus on the most?

Before we can understand God's Will, we must recognise our own will in order to be able to differentiate the two. In that at times, our prayer is not so much about relationship, but, more about manipulation.

In order to build a healthy relationship with God, we must learn to accredit to God what is His and His alone. That means every good thought and every good deed we do, has its origins from the indwelling Spirit. We are not the source of Goodness, God is.

When we feel a need to become closer to our Lord that is an inspiration from God, to spend time in prayer so that He can strengthen us. For God knows that every bad thought, every unkind deed and every bad intention is from our own selfishness.

This is the understanding that we lack. Not every bad deed we do can be blamed on the Devil, for at times God Himself will place obstacles in our path, not to break us but to strengthen that which is weakest in our nature.

One only needs to read the book of Job to understand that it is sometimes through adversity that God works the greatest within the confines of the soul. For our mind is not God's mind, nor our ways, His Way. They are separate indeed, but it is when we think we can speak 'for' God that we find ourselves judging others.

It no longer suffices to say that we do not know God's Will, indeed any Christian should know the Will of the Father, which is expressed by The Son in the Word and through the Church. So to be in ignorance of Scripture is to be in ignorance of God, to paraphrase St. Jerome.

In order to know our self we need to strip away our artifaces and to understand that in and of ourselves we are nothing. That if we fail to place God at the centre of our lives, we will then make our ego the sole focus of our existence. This will lead us on a path of self gratification and self absorption.

In order to grow spiritually mature we need to examine our inner most heart with ruthless honesty. With this inward knowledge we then understand how far we fall short of what the Bible instructs and exhorts us to become. Only when we realise how much we lack in love can God begin to prune our souls in the burning fire of His Divine Love.

For a mind that is absent of God is a soul that is absent of Love.

Where have you placed God in your life?