What do you know?

Kind of strange question, perhaps, but anyway a very valid one. What do you really know?

"What is so important about knowledge? I thought faith was the main thing in Christendom."

Absolutely. Faith is important, and without faith it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6).

There is, however, another factor that's highly overlooked, and that is knowledge.

Example: You receive a painting as a gift from your uncle. You like the painting, and hang it on the wall. It hangs there for years, until one day you take it down to clean and dust it. When you examine the back of the painting, you see something that looks like there is a pocket or something behind the outer layer. You open the pocket and find $ 1 000. You're overjoyed, and call your friends and family to tell them of your discovery.

The point? The money was there all the time, you just didn't know about it. You had no knowledge about the money, and it was for you as if you never had it - until you found it!

That's the way it is with the knowledge of God. It's "hidden" in His "treasure chest" - the Bible. You just have to open it and find the treasures, then you can use them to live a victorious life in Jesus Christ.

The Bible has much to say about the importance of knowing. I have picked just a few scriptures to show you what I mean:

"Give me wisdom and knowledge, that I may lead this people, for who is able to govern this great people of yours?" (2 Chronicles 1:10) You need not only wisdom, but knowledge to be a leader.

"Job speaks without knowledge; his words lack insight" (Job 34:35) To have insight, you need knowledge. You need to know what's going on.

"Teach me knowledge and good judgment, for I believe in your commands" (Psalm 119:66). To be a good judge, you need knowledge. You have to know, rather than suppose.

"Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.  His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness" (2 Peter 1:2-3). Grace and peace come through knowing God and Jesus. We have everything we need in this life and the next in Jesus Christ, but if we don't know about it, it won't do us any good. It's the knowing that makes us able to use it.

Just like the thousand dollars behind the painting, there are great riches and thruths hidden in the Word of God, riches and truths we need to live victorious, joyful and fulfilled lives here on earth. You need to know about these riches and truths, so start digging for knowledge today!