"I never KNEW you..."

I had this really cool revelation when I was describing the difference between faith, relationship and religion to my son last Saturday.  I was telling Adam that God wants to have a relationship with us and as we believe in Him and pursue Him, that is when He reveals Himself to us. He doesn't reveal Himself to just anyone... only to those who REALLY desire to know Him. So, Adam was sitting at the kitchen table and to emphasize this thought I said "let's say you and I are in the same room and your sitting there and I acknowledge you but then continue doing my own thing but not really showing much interest in you. I may look at you once in a while or even have a light conversation with you but over all, I am too busy doing my own thing. You probably wouldn't be prompted to share very much of yourself with me because I don't seem very interested in finding out more about you. But, let's say I come up to you, look into your eyes and say with sincerity 'I am interested in who you are. I would really like to get to know you better! Could you please tell me more about yourself?'" And I said to Adam, wouldn't you be more willing to share yourself with someone who is really interested in you rather than to someone who just acknowledges your presence every once in awhile?

Later on that night as I was thinking about that analogy I realized that I spent the majority of my Christian walk as the person who acknowledged Jesus as being in the room but I was so busy "doing" things for him and "showing" Him how much I loved Him by doing all the things I thought He wanted me to do... Saying "look at me Jesus! Look at all the things I have done for you!  Do you want me to do more? Or, let me run over here and do this for you!" But never really coming to Him, looking at His face and saying "Lord, I want to KNOW YOU! Show me who you are!" The story of Mary and Martha comes to mind! I was Martha all those years but now, I want to be Mary!! I want to sit at the feet of Jesus and look up into His face and hear what He has to say!! I am so done "doing" for Jesus! Now, all I want is to KNOW HIM!

So, this morning when I woke up I started thinking about this again and the scripture "I never knew you" came to mind: "Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!' Matthew 7:22-23  Oh my gosh! That is what He meant by that!  So many of us spend our lives doing this and that for Jesus or doing things "in His name" but never desiring to really "KNOW" HIM! "I never knew you..."

When I shared this with Tom he said "what are the things God disliked the most? It was IDOLS and SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS. Tom said that Jesus will not share us with anything or anyone else... If we desire to have other things, or idols, in our lives that mean more to us than Him, He will not force His way in and He will allow us to have those other things. But, we have to realized that we have made our choice as to who we are serving...  And He will not reveal Himself to us.  

And then self-righteousness states, "I don't need you, I can do this on my own!"... Boy, that so clearly describes me for most of my life!! I was so independent, not needing anyone for anything! Doing things for myself first and then if I needed help I would ask but I took pride in being able to take care of myself..."  Then Tom said, "What is the significance of 'becoming like little children?' "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." Matthew 18:3  Being like a child is all about our DEPENDENCE upon HIM not on ourselves! And in Matthew 11:25 He says "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children."  When we become too full our our own knowledge about God, we feel like we no longer need Him but instead, we need to be "needy" and "dependent" upon Him like little children before "these things" will be revealed to us...  I believe that what will be "revealed" to us is the revelation of who Jesus is!

Oh Father. Forgive us all for placing so many things before YOU our loving Heavenly Father! Help us Lord to desire YOU above anything or anyone else in our lives. Help us to set aside our own idea's of who we are or what we need, help us to set aside our hopes, our dreams our wants and needs and embrace all that YOU have for us! Trusting you like little children to meet all of our needs and fulfilling the desires of our heart... that only You really know because You created us!!  We think we know but we have been raised by the world and have believed the lies of what we want and need. Help us to surrender and to submit all of ourselves and our lives to YOU and You alone. In Jesus name, amen!