I recently started reading and working through Kenneth Boa’s book, “Conformed to His Image”, with friends and co-laborers in Christ. This is the third time I have gone through this book and each time I have been greatly impacted and challenged to love God more completely.

In the latest chapter I read, Boa writes:
In the last few years I have adapted and used this prayer by St. Richard of Chichester (1197-1253) in my own quiet time before the Lord: “Thanks be to thee, O Lord Jesus Christ, for all the benefits which thou hast given us, for all the pains and insults which thou hast borne for us. O most merciful Redeemer, Friend, and Brother, may we know thee more clearly, love thee more dearly, and follow thee more nearly; for thine own sake.”

Loving God completely involves our whole personality: our intellect, emotion, and will. “And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind and with all your strength” (Mark 12:30). The better we come to know God (“may we know thee more clearly”), the more we will love Him (“love thee more dearly”). And the more we love Him, the greater our willingness to trust and obey Him in the things He calls us to do (“follow thee more nearly”).

The great prayers in Ephesians 1 and 3, Philippians 1, and Colossians 1 reveal that Paul’s deepest desire for his readers was that they grow in the knowledge of Jesus Christ. The knowledge the apostle had in mind was not merely propositional but personal. He prayed that the Lord would give them a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, that the eyes of their hearts would be enlightened, and that they would know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge (Ephesians 1:17-18; 3:19). Read more...