I Never Knew You.

Jesus said, “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonderful works in Your name?’ But then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you. Depart from Me, you who practice evil.'” (Matthew 7:22-23)

Do you know Jesus? Knowing Him is more than a confession of sin and saying He is your Savior. Knowing Him is more than attending church on Sunday. Knowing Him is more than a whispered prayer and believing you are a good person. (Because you are not—none of us are.)

Knowing Him is seeking him with your whole heart. Knowing Him is repenting, or turning away, from your sin. That means not doing it anymore. Intentionally. It doesn’t mean you get to choose which commands you like and which you don’t. It means you follow ALL of them.

Knowing Him is serving Him, which means He is your Lord. It means He owns you. He bought you with His blood. Do you belong to Him? His blood became our redemption and we became His people. Serving Him means His will, not your own. It is an act of worship that flows naturally when you make Him Lord.

Unbeknownst to myself, I was spiritually dead. I believed I was born-again—but I truly wasn’t. I was deceived and I was blind. I believed my Savior died to take away my sins, and that by confessing that I was saved. That’s true, but that is not all there is to the message of the Cross.

Throughout the New Testament, Paul repeatedly refers to himself as a bondservant of the Lord Jesus Christ. Essentially, he was saying he was a slave to the Savior. His life was not built around fitting the Lord in, it was built around living for the Lord. No excuses. Not only when it was convenient. Not only when he didn’t have other plans. Not one day a week. Not when he wasn’t tired, or hungry, or didn’t feel like it. ALL of the time, because Jesus was his Lord.

Is He truly your’s or are they just words you say? I ask not to condemn, but in the hope that your eyes might be opened, thus saving your soul. If He is your’s, He owns you. He didn’t just die to save you from your sins so you could live a happy life on earth and then go to heaven. He didn’t just die, He himself following the will of the Father, so you could live for your own will all of your days. We are called to live for His plans, not our own.

I implore you to dig deeper, to discover the true beauty of who He is. Knowing someone comes from spending time with them, not from a weekly church service and a quick devotional every other morning. You must seek Him to know Him. That is how He reveals Himself.

“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” (Matthew 7:13-14)

Are you among the few or the many? Have you hopped over the fence into the pen or have you truly come through the Savior? It is more than words. It is a relationship with the King. It is obedience to His call. It is submission, sincere faith and a life alive only in Him. If you are living for yourself, you have not died to self—something every redeemed sinner must do. 

Who are you living for?