Nobody Will Know
“I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins [figuratively the MIND per the concordance], even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.” Jeremiah 17:10
“You don’t need to get one of those things from the local government,” someone essentially told me one day. “You really don’t need one,” he continued. We chatted on a bit. “It’s not necessary.”
“Yes it is,” I said emphatically.
Then came the famous age-old words. “Nobody’s going to know about it,” he said.
Then, with my usual boldness which has been known to get me into trouble at times but which I am ever learning to use for the glory of the Lord instead, out popped these words.
“Jesus is the one I’m going to be standing before,” I declared. “And I don’t feel like having the door slammed in my face when it’s time for heaven.” I smiled, but my heart was heavy.
“I don’t think those things are going to matter,” the man said.
“Oh, yes they will,” I said, walking off. “But I’ll let the Holy Spirit take over from here,” I essentially said with a laugh. Still, my heart was heavy.
It had been a light-hearted conversation between two virtual strangers, but the subject is near and dear to my heart. For there is nothing I love more in the universe than the Lord, and nothing that weighs more heavily on my heart than so much of the world’s rejection of Him at worst, nonchalance and irreverence of Him at best. One of the greatest burdens I bear is over the false, and deadly belief, that believing in Christ, going to church or temple, saying prayers, etc. are enough.
If we really believe in Christ as Lord and Savior, our words, thoughts, and actions will bear the fruit of our faith. We will live lives devoted to God. And we will understand that God searches and tries our hearts and minds and will hold us accountable (Rom. 14:10-12 and 2 Cor. 5:10) for how we have lived our lives.
Nobody will know, the man had said. The truth is there are some things no humans will ever know regarding our thoughts and actions. There is much in this wicked world in which we live that we will get away with while we’re on earth. But where we will spend eternity, and whether we will have a relationship with God now and forever in heaven, and the quality and depth of the intimacy in that relationship, will be proof enough that the Lord knows all – even what the world may never know.
No matter what we may get away with on earth, it’s not worth giving up a forever relationship with the Lord most high!