DAY 31 — The Pearl: I Just Want to Know Him

DAY 31 — The Pearl: I Just Want to Know Him

“That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings...” — Philippians 3:10 (NKJV)

Treasure to Possess

There is no greater treasure than knowing Jesus. After everything I have learned, experienced, accomplished, or received, the deepest cry of my heart remains the same: I just want to know Him.

I Just Want to Know Him

The older I get, the more I realize how quickly life passes.

Things that once seemed so important do not seem nearly as important anymore. Accomplishments fade. Possessions come and go. People applaud you one day and forget what you did the next. Even some of the things we spend years worrying about eventually become memories we can barely remember.

But Jesus remains.

That is why Paul’s words in Philippians 3:10 touch me so deeply: “That I may know Him.”

Paul already knew Jesus. He had encountered Him on the road to Damascus. He had preached Christ, suffered for Christ, planted churches, experienced miracles, received revelation, and given his life to the gospel.

Yet after all of that, Paul was still saying, “I want to know Him.”

I understand that more now than I once did.

There comes a place in our journey when we realize that Christianity is not ultimately about how much Scripture we know, how many sermons we have preached, how many people we have helped, how much ministry we have accomplished, or how many years we have served God.

Those things matter, but they are not the treasure.

Jesus is.

I do not simply want to know more about Him. I want to know His heart. I want to recognize His voice. I want to understand what moves Him. I want to love what He loves and see people the way He sees them.

Because the more I know Him, the more I love Him.

And the more I love Him, the more I find myself loving the people He loves.

Maybe that is one of the clearest signs that we are truly knowing Jesus. We become more loving, not merely more knowledgeable. We become more gracious, not merely more certain. We become quicker to forgive, slower to condemn, more willing to serve, and increasingly able to see value in people others might overlook.

Knowing Him changes us.

There have been times in my life when I wanted God’s answers. There have been times when I wanted His blessings, His power, His direction, or His intervention. There is nothing wrong with wanting those things.

But somewhere along the journey, our prayer begins to change.

“Jesus, more than what You can do for me, I want You.”

That is a different kind of hunger.

It is possible to spend our lives around the things of God and still miss the intimacy of simply being with God. We can become busy serving Jesus and forget to enjoy Jesus. We can study His Word looking for something to preach and forget to allow His Word to speak personally to our own hearts.

Sometimes we simply need to sit with Him again.

No agenda.

Nothing to prove.

Nothing to accomplish.

Just Jesus.

Maybe that is why Paul could count everything else as loss compared with “the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord” (Philippians 3:8).

He had found the Pearl worth everything.

And after all these days of searching Philippians for pearls, perhaps we keep arriving at the same treasure.

Jesus.

Every promise brings us closer to Him. Every principle teaches us to walk with Him. Every exchange makes room for more of His life to be expressed through ours.

The greatest pearl is not something we receive from His hand.

It is knowing His heart.

So if God gives me many more years, this is what I want those years to be about: knowing Jesus more deeply, loving Him more completely, and allowing that love to overflow into every person He places around me.

I want my family to receive the fruit of my knowing Him. I want my friends to receive it. I want strangers to receive it. I even want those who misunderstand me, disappoint me, or hurt me to encounter something of His love through me.

Because to know Him is to love Him.

And to love Him is to love others.

Perhaps at the end of everything, that is what matters most.

Not how impressive our lives appeared.

Not how much we accumulated.

Not even how much we accomplished.

But that we knew Him.

That we loved Him.

And because we knew and loved Him, somebody else experienced His love through us.

Jesus, for the rest of my life, I just want to know You.

Prayer of Faith

Precious Heavenly Father, thank You for giving me the greatest treasure I could ever possess—Jesus.

More than answers, accomplishments, recognition, possessions, or even blessings, I want to know Him. Holy Spirit, reveal Jesus to me more deeply. Let me know His heart, recognize His voice, love what He loves, and see people through His eyes.

Do not let me become so busy serving You that I forget to enjoy You. Keep my heart tender, hungry, and close to You.

Jesus, I want to know You more. And as I know You more, let me love You more; and as I love You more, let Your love flow through me to everyone around me.

For the rest of my life, this is the cry of my heart: that I may know Him.

I am loved by You, precious Heavenly Father, filled with Your Holy Spirit, and alive in You, my precious Savior, Jesus Christ. In the powerful name of Jesus, amen.