Knowing God Deeply (1 Chronicles 28:9)

And you, Solomon my son, know the God of your father and serve him with a whole heart and with a willing mind, for the Lord searches all hearts and understands every plan and thought.
– 1 Chronicles 28:9

Just let some of these phrases soak in. This is David speaking to his son Solomon, giving him a charge. And the charge starts this way, “Know the God of your father”. Like, “Know God”.

1 Chronicles 28:9 shows the worth of knowing God.

You just think about Jeremiah 9, “Don’t boast in wisdom you have and might you have. Don’t boast in anything in this world that you may have, boast in one thing that you know and understand God”. Like knowledge of God… And not just head knowledge. This is knowing God, being in relationship with God. And seeing, and beholding, and understanding God. This is what is worthy of boasting in. This is life.

“Know the God of your father and serve him”. Listen to this phrase, “with a whole heart and with a willing mind”. Whole heart and willing mind. Don’t you want both those things to be true of your life? You’re serving God with your whole heart, not half-heartedly, but wholeheartedly.

This is where life is found, not in half-hearted service to God. It’s wholehearted service to God, love for God. And a willing mind. A mind that says, “I’m willing to be whoever you want me to be, to do whatever you want me to do, to go wherever you want me to go to, to give whatever you want me to give, to lay down my life however you want me to lay down my life”. A willing mind. This is where life is found.

1 Chronicles 28:9 shows the beauty of wholehearted service.

So I just want to pray these phrases over your life and my life based on David’s charge to Solomon in this verse. What a powerful verse.

God, we pray for this in each of our lives, that we would know you. That we would know you, the God of David, the God of Solomon, the God of Moses, the God of Daniel, the God of Ruth, the God of Esther, the God of our fathers and mothers, in the faith. God, we pray that we would know you. I pray this over my life.

I pray this over every single person listening right now. That we would know you, understand you more today than we did yesterday, and more tomorrow than we do today. God, help us to know you intimately, closely. And to serve you with our whole hearts. God, we pray that you would just remove any half-hearted service from us. Help us to serve you with everything we have, with our whole hearts.

This verse points to daily faithfulness as true worship.

And God, we pray for willing minds. We pray for minds that are humble before you, that are surrendered to you, willing to do anything. Everything you call us to do, be, go, give, whatever, wherever you call us to go, and give, and sacrifice. God, we pray for willing minds to obey you today. We pray that our lives today, the time we lay our head on our pillow at night, if we’re praying this at night, by the time we lay our head on our pillow tomorrow night, that we would’ve served you with a whole heart and a willing mind, and that we would know you more.

We pray that that would be true of us on a daily basis. That these phrases, God, I pray, would mark our lives. And God, we pray that you’d help us to make you known, to follow you, Jesus, to know you. And to make you known everywhere around us today, to make you known to the people around us, and to make you known around the world.

Prayer for the Manya People

God, we pray for the Manya people of Liberia, for a hundred thousand Manya in Liberia, and then others in Guinea. Lord, we pray for the spread of your grace, your love, the knowledge of Jesus to spread to the Manya people of Liberia and Guinea, that they might serve you with a whole heart, a willing mind, and experience life in you. God, we pray 1 Chronicles 28:9 over our lives. In Jesus’ name, amen.