To Be Known
When Jesus says, “I never knew you,” and they answer, “In Your name we did…,” He brings us back to something deeper than activity or language and places everything in the quiet interior of the heart, where relationship either lives or slowly fades.
David seemed to understand this with a clarity that still humbles us. He could say, “Before a word is on my lips, You know it completely,” and “You knit me together in my mother’s womb,” because he lived with the awareness that he was already seen. There is no managing in those Psalms, no curating of image, only the steady confidence that the One who formed him also knows him entirely… and still draws him near.
Even when Jesus says something that sounds severe, “What you whisper in the inner room will be proclaimed from the rooftops,” He is reminding us that we already stand fully before God, every hidden thought and every subtle movement of the heart uncovered. The issue is not exposure, but whether we will live openly in the light of being known.
David was called a man after God’s own heart because he refused to hide. He poured out everything… joy and failure, longing and anger, gratitude and repentance… trusting that the God who knew him completely was also merciful.
In Jesus, the mercy of God takes on flesh. He becomes bread for the hungry and living water for the thirsty. He welcomes the stranger and makes enemies into guests. He clothes our shame with His righteousness, carries our sickness in His own body, and enters our captivity so that we might be free. The compassion He commands is the compassion He performs.
To know Him, then, is not to invoke His Name as power, but to share in His life. Scripture even uses the language of husband and wife to describe this knowing, because it is covenantal and life-giving, a union in which nothing needs to be concealed and love makes transparency safe. He already knows every turn within us… and the invitation is simply to remain in His presence without fear, to rest in being loved, and to let that love reshape us.
From that place, caring for what He cares about becomes natural. Compassion is no longer effort but overflow. We do not act “in His name” to secure ourselves; we love because His heart has quietly become our own.
Lord, You have searched me and You know me. Before a word is on my tongue, You understand it completely. You formed me and ordained my days before one of them came to be… and still You invite me near.
Keep me from hiding behind activity or language. Guard me from speaking Your Name while keeping my heart closed. Teach me the freedom of transparency, the quiet courage of living uncovered before You.
Unite my heart with Yours. Shape my desires to reflect what You love. Let Your compassion for the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the sick, the naked, and the imprisoned become the quiet rhythm of my life. May love flow not from pressure, but from communion.
I do not want power without presence. I want intimacy…..abiding….
I want to be known!
Amen.