What It Means to Know You

"But a beautiful palace does not make a great king! Why did your father, Josiah, reign so long? Because he was just and right in all his dealings. That is why God blessed him. He made sure that justice and help were given to the poor and needy, and everything went well for him. Isn't that what it means to know me?" asks the LORD. [Jeremiah 22:15-16 NLT]

Father, I want to lay my books aside and give up on trying to figure you out. It all ends up in manipulation anyhow. "How can I get you to give me what I want?" But that is not knowing you anyway. It is pretense. As if correct doctrines force your hand. Or certain prayers spoken with certain motives bind you. As if the Bible were a manual for learning how to use you. Or Christ a token to forever secure my salvation.

But then there is being just and right in all my dealings. Beginning with authentic friendship with you that is nothing about how you can solve my problems, increase my porfolio, or give me spiritual currentcy. How much would I be concerned with knowing you as Father and Friend if all I wanted from you was something else? Lord, we are so dishonest and fake.

Teach me who you are, bring me to know you. Do it by sending me to care for the weak and poor and needy. They can never repay me. They have nothing to offer. In service with to them, I will learn how to be a true friend who seeks to know for the sake of knowing and not for the sake of using. And as I serve each one, I will know you more because I will find our hands together in the bowl from which we wash their feet. I will find my honesty and my Friend.