J.I. Packer on Knowledge about God and Knowledge of God

“Once you become aware that the main business that you are here for is to know God, most of life’s problems fall into place of their own accord.”

― J.I. Packer, Knowing God 

“We must seek, in studying God, to be led to God. It was for this purpose that revelation was given, and it is to this use that we must put it.”
― J.I. Packer, Knowing God 

 “Disregard the study of God, and you sentence yourself to stumble and blunder through life blindfolded, as it were, with no sense of direction and no understanding of what surrounds you. This way you can waste your life and lose your soul.”
― J.I. Packer, Knowing God 

“Knowing about God is crucially important for the living of our lives. As it would be cruel to an Amazonian tribesmen to fly him to London, put him down without explanation in Trafalgar Square and leave him, as one who knew nothing of English or England, to fend for himself, so we are cruel to ourselves if we try to live in this world without knowing about the God whose world it is and who runs it .The world becomes a strange, mad, painful place, and life in it a disappointing and unpleasant business, for those who do not know about God. Disregard the study of God, and you sentence yourself to stumble and blunder through life blindfold, as it were , with no sense of direction, and no understanding of what surrounds you. This way you can waste your life and lose your soul.”
― J.I. Packer, Knowing God

 “How can we turn our knowledge about God into knowledge of God? The rule for doing this is simple but demanding. It is that we turn each Truth that we learn about God into matter for meditation before God, leading to prayer and praise to God.”
― J.I. Packer, Knowing God 

“A little knowledge of God is worth more than a great deal of knowledge about him.”
― J.I. Packer, Knowing God

“Meditation is the activity of calling to mind, and thinking over, and dwelling on, and applying to oneself, the various things that one knows about the works and ways and purposes and promises of God. It is an activity of holy thought, consciously performed in the presence of God, under the eye of God, by the help of God, as a means of communion with God.”
― J.I. Packer, Knowing God 

“we must say that knowing God involves, first, listening to God’s Word and receiving it as the Holy Spirit interprets it, in application to oneself; second, noting God’s nature and character, as his Word and works reveal it; third, accepting his invitations and doing what he commands; fourth, recognizing and rejoicing in the love that he has shown in thus approaching you and drawing you into this divine fellowship.”
― J.I. Packer, Knowing God 

 “There is no peace like the peace of those whose minds are possessed with full assurance that they have known God, and God has known them, and that this relationship guarantees God’s favor to them in life, through death and on for ever.”
― J.I. Packer, Knowing God 

I think for me, going through this sequential list of quotes has helped me (at least today) see how reading the Bible points me to God, and how head knowledge ("knowledge about God") is converted into heart knowledge ("knowledge of God/Knowing God").