The value of knowing God is infinite. To seek daily to know God better provides the best return on investment of anything you can do.
“Let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.” (ESV)
—Jeremiah 9:24
This verse describes an unlimited opportunity. God says if you want, you can understand and know him.
Unfortunately for most people in the world, that is the last thing they want to know. In fact, they deliberately push out of their minds thoughts about God. Even many believers do not make knowing God better a priority, thinking they have more valuable things to do.
To be someone who sees the rewards of knowing God you must be someone who recognizes value, who knows a good investment when you see it. Those who choose to prioritize knowing and understanding God recognize the infinite value of God.
The value of knowing God
They are like the people who in the earliest days of the big tech companies saw their value and bought their stock. For example, investors who bought a share of Microsoft stock at the start of 1987 paid about 16 cents (adjusted for inflation). If they sold that share at the start of 2021, they received about 217 dollars. That is an increase of 135,525 percent. That means someone who invested just 1,000 dollars in that stock in 1987 would have $1,356,000 in 2021. That company has had value.
God has value. His value makes Microsoft look like wasted money. His value is literally infinite. He has more value than anything and everything, even than everything else put together, more value than the whole world. You cannot measure the value of what you invest in knowing and understanding him.
God can teach you about himself
Some writers say God is so different from us we cannot understand anything about him. They are wrong. In this verse God plainly says the door is open to understand and know him. Yes, God is different from us, both in degree and in kind, but that does not mean we cannot know him, because he has chosen to reveal himself to us. What he has revealed is reliable, understandable knowledge.
God is a good communicator. He has skills. He is the Word. And he created our ears and brains. He creates each human spirit. He made us in his image. And he has the ability to enable us to understand him. He sent his Son Jesus as the exact display of himself (Hebrews 1:3). He inspired the writing of Scripture as his inerrant words, his very words. In the Scriptures we have a wealth of riches for knowing God, enough to challenge the finest minds not just for one lifetime, but for many.
Deep, genuine knowledge
In Jeremiah 9:24 God says we can know and understand him. Notice the doubling—know, understand—which serves to emphasize the point. The two words largely overlap in meaning, but understand (Hebrew, sakal) emphasizes knowing truly and with the mind, while know (Hebrew, yada) is used for a broader range of knowing, such as knowing experientially, with the heart, even sexually. But the point is, we can have genuine, deep, reliable knowledge of God, which is the foundation for a rich relationship with God.
That is what a good relationship is. You know someone more and more and relate to them based on what you know. Trying to relate to people you do not know is like walking through an unfamiliar room in the middle of the night in the dark. You discover things the hard way. You unintentionally offend or hurt them. Or you talk about things they are not interested in. You try to do things with them that they do not enjoy.
But the more you know God’s ways, what he likes and dislikes, what he approves and disapproves, you can walk intimately with him, experiencing his presence continually. You can know and understand God. You can walk with him every day, all day, pleasing him, doing what he approves, talking to him, receiving his peace, joy, and love, fulfilling his perfect purpose for your life.
Scripture says of Noah that “he walked with God” (Genesis 9:6). You can do that too. It begins with determining that you want above all things to know and understand God better every day.
Practical and relevant
I cannot overstate how valuable this knowledge is. First, because God is the most valuable thing there is, which alone makes this knowledge worth everything. And that must be our primary motivation for seeking to know him better.
Second, because no one affects everything about your life both now and forever as he does. That is because he is sovereign over all. He controls literally everything about your life: your health, lifespan, job, finances, friendships, romantic/marriage relationship, emotions, salvation and sanctification from sin, victory over the world, the flesh and the devil, and on and on. Scripture says he gives and he takes away (Job 1:21). He opens doors and closes doors (Revelation 3:7). From him, through him, and to him are all things (Romans 11:36). Every good and every perfect gift comes from him (James 1:17). It follows, then, that no knowledge is more practical and relevant than the knowledge of God.
To view the knowledge of God as irrelevant or low priority would be like a 5-year-old saying that about his mother, or an investor saying that about the economy.
The time you invest every day in knowing God better is the wisest, most rewarding investment you make in your overall happiness, health, and well-being. As Jesus prayed to the Father, “This is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent,” (John 17:3).
I recommend this prayer: Lord, I want to know you much better. I confess that I have been content with far too little understanding of you and your ways. And I confess that I often have preferred to think and learn about other things of lesser value. Forgive me. Thank you for giving your Scriptures to us precisely so that we may know you. Stir me up daily to read and study your Word. As I do, please reveal yourself and your ways to me. Amen
Jeremiah 9:23–24: “Thus says the LORD: ‘Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.’” (ESV)