Many people have a bible verse(s) that they hold very close to their hearts. Maybe you do as well. Our verse(s) often seems to be something we want and maybe need to remind and encourage us on our spiritual journey. At other times it can be something we hope others will take to their heart. I have friends who feel strongly enough about their verse(s) that they include it at the bottom of all their emails. Maybe you do as well. Diana always includes Hebrews 11:1 a verse about faith at the bottom of her emails. I have business customers who don’t really know me at all who include their verse(s) on their business emails and sometimes even their business cards. I even have friends who have a verse(s) important enough to them that they have custom license plates showing the verse(s).

I too have a verse or rather verses that I hold close that I’m sure you have heard before but might not have given much thought to.

They’re from Matthew 7, a chapter that continues and concludes Christ’s Sermon on the Mount. I know you’ve read or heard Matthew 7. It includes familiar stuff like “enter through the narrow gate for the gate is wide and broad that leads to destruction—do unto others what you would have them do unto you—if you who are wicked know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will God give good things to those who ask—seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you—and why do you notice the splinter in someone else’s eye but not the log in your own”.

My verses are a little farther down, almost to the end of the chapter and probably not nearly as familiar. “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? Did we not drive out demons in your name? Did we not do mighty deeds in your name? Then I will declare to them solemnly, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you evildoers.”  Matthew  7:21-23

Now you may not be like me, but I find it real easy, even effortless at times to start thinking very highly of myself and my relationship with God—especially compared to others. I go to church every week (even on vacation), I pray, I tithe (even more than the minimum), I give to charities, I read lots of books about God and the spiritual life, I belong to not 1, but 2 prayer groups, I go to spiritual direction, am a greeter at church and have done even more other good God stuff for many years.

So, what more could God ask of me?

For me, these verses are the answer to that question. They help humble me. They help remind me of how far from God I really am, no matter where someone else might be. These verses talk about people like me, except that these people do a whole lot more and greater things than I’ve even thought about. These people didn’t just do good things, they did great things, they did God things, even things that certainly God had to have performed through them for it to have ever happened at all. And yet, in the end, God disowned them. These people were doing God’s work, but apparently not God’s will. And the difference in the two can be the difference in where we spend eternity.

What concerns me most about these verses is the “I never knew you” part. These people never saw this coming. They believed that they were good. They believed they would spend eternity in heaven. They were comfortable. They were wrong!

I have to ask myself, could this be me? Does God know Me? What will he say to me when we meet face to face?

Despite what we often think, God doesn’t seem to be nearly as interested in what we do as he is in knowing us—which doesn’t seem to make much sense, because most of us believe that God knows everything.

But, what if he doesn’t?

What if God doesn’t always think and act like we think he does—like we do? What if God chooses not to know something? What if just as he doesn’t force us to do his will, he also allows us to keep our hearts (the very center of our soul) hidden or at least partially hidden even from him until we invite him in. What if making ourselves known to him and getting into heaven really requires what verse 21 says–“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven”.

I hope that you will consider sharing your verse(s) as well as what it means to you with us here.