Let us know; let us press on to know the Lord; his going out is sure as the dawn; he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth.
– Hosea 6:3
Is that not an incredible admonition exhortation? “Let us know, let us press on to know the Lord”. I just picture us saying that to each other. I wish I could look you in the eye right now, you looking him in the eye, and us just saying this to each other, “Let’s know. Let’s press on to know the Lord”. I think about Jeremiah 29, “Let not the wise man boast in wisdom. Let not the rich man boast in his riches. Don’t boast in these things. Let him who boasts boast in this. That he knows and understands me, that I am the Lord”. “This is our boast,” Jeremiah 9 says, “That we know God”.
Hosea 6:3 teaches us that life is found in knowing God.
So Hosea 6:3, “Let’s know him, let’s press on to know him. Knowing that he will come to us as the showers, as spring rains”. What imagery! Like water on the earth. Life is found in knowing God, and pressing on every single day to know him more. And I just want to encourage you today to press on, to know God more today. Strive to know God more at the end of today than you do right now. To know God more tomorrow than you do today. To be in his Word, to walk with him in prayer, to obey him. That’s the whole context in Hosea 6 is to pursue righteousness, true worship, and obedience before God so that we might know him truly, deeply, intimately. And more with each passing day because we’re pressing on to know him. Make this your goal today, to know God more.
Let’s all do this. Let’s look at each other and let’s say this to other followers of Jesus, “Let’s press on to know the Lord”. Oh God, we pray for this in our lives. I pray for this over every single person listening right now, even as I pray for this in my own life. God, we pray that we would press on today to know you. Even as I pray that I know that might look very different than even what we might expect or want, or choose in our lives.
Hosea 6:3 challenges us to cultivate deeper intimacy with God.
I just think about how knowledge of you grows through suffering, trials, and challenges in this world. I think about even just things that I’ve been walking through personally, and how I know you more now than I did at the beginning of this week. It’s not because this week’s been easy, it’s actually challenges that have led to deeper knowledge of you. Knowing you is our greatest need and desire. Oh, God, we want to know you. In all your fullness, we want to know you more and more and more.
We pray that you’d make that our desire more than ease, more than things going the way we want in this world. We pray that we would desire knowledge of you, knowing you personally over and above everything in this world, no matter what that means for our lives. Even as we pray that, we praise you for the privilege of knowing you, God, of walking with you, of being known by you, of being loved by you, of being in true, authentic relationship with you.
This verse reminds us to live to make God known among the lost.
God, yes, help us to press and to know you more today. We pray that we would know you more at the end of today than we do right now. And that you would help us to press into your Word, and obedience to your Word, and your Spirit in our lives. Help us to walk with you in attitude of worship all day long today so that we might know you.
God, please use whatever circumstances we walk through today to draw us to deeper knowledge of you. And at the same time, oh, God help us to make you known. Help us to live today, to make you known to people around us. To other brothers and sisters in Christ, to encourage them and their knowledge of you to help them press on and know you more. And God, for people who don’t know you, to come to know you as a result of our lives. God, we pray for that. For friends, family members, co-workers, and classmates. We pray that people around us would come to know you through us.
Prayer for the Mali People
And, God, we pray for people who have no knowledge of the name of Jesus. Like the Mali people of India and Bangladesh. God, we pray for 13.5 million Mali men, women, and children who don’t know you because they’ve not heard the good news of your love for them. God, we pray for the spread of the gospel to the Mali people that they might know you. Oh, God, that all the peoples might know you, we pray. And we pray that you help us to live, to know you, and to make you known. In Jesus’ name, we pray all this according to your Word, which we love in Hosea 6:3. In Jesus’ name, amen.
David Platt serves as a Lead Pastor for McLean Bible Church. He is also the Founder of Radical, an organization that makes Jesus known among the nations.
David received his B.A. from the University of Georgia and M.Div., Th.M., and Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Some of his published works include Radical, Radical Together, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Don’t Hold Back, and How to Read the Bible.
He lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area with his wife and children.
