There is a moment Jesus describes when all of heaven listens: the moment He speaks your name before the Father. In Matthew 10:32, He ties that future moment to what we do now—whether we will openly identify with Him in front of people. Our quiet choices, our public loyalties, our willingness to be seen as His—these are not small or private matters to Him. They echo into eternity.

When Faith Refuses to Stay Private

Jesus does not invite us into a secret, hidden arrangement. He calls us into a relationship that is public, visible, and unmistakable. “Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father in heaven” (Matthew 10:32). Confessing Him is more than merely mentioning His name; it is standing with Him when it costs something—when it affects what people think of us, what we might lose, or how we are treated.

This is why Jesus links our confession of Him with His confession of us. He is not ashamed to call us His brothers and sisters (Hebrews 2:11); will we be ashamed to call Him our Lord? He warned, “For whoever is ashamed of Me and of My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in His Father’s glory with the holy angels” (Mark 8:38). The question is simple but searching: Am I willing to be known as His, not just in my heart, but in my words and choices?

What You Say Reveals What You Really Believe

Jesus is not asking for empty slogans; He is after a confession that flows from a transformed heart. “If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with your heart you believe and are justified, and with your mouth you confess and are saved” (Romans 10:9–10). The mouth confirms what the heart truly clings to. Silence in the face of opportunity can expose fear, compromise, or doubts we’ve been refusing to face.

But Christ does not expose us to shame us; He exposes us to heal us. If you recognize hesitation or fear, bring it into the light. Ask Him to deepen your love, strengthen your courage, and clarify your convictions. As He fills your heart, confession becomes less of a duty and more of an overflow. “We believe, therefore we also speak” (2 Corinthians 4:13). The more real Jesus becomes to you, the less plausible it feels to keep Him hidden.

Shining in a World That Wants You Dim

Our culture often urges us to keep faith “personal” and out of sight. But Scripture calls us the people who shine. God’s purpose is “that you may be blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and perverse generation, in which you shine as lights in the world” (Philippians 2:15). Lights do not apologize for shining; they simply do what they were made to do. Confessing Christ—gently, clearly, and consistently—is how your life glows in dark places.

This doesn’t mean being harsh or combative. It means being ready and willing. “But in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give a defense to anyone who asks you the reason for the hope that is in you. But respond with gentleness and respect” (1 Peter 3:15). Today, ask the Lord for at least one concrete opportunity to speak His name—whether in a brief testimony, a word of encouragement, or an honest statement of what you believe—and then, by His Spirit, take it.

Lord Jesus, thank You for promising to confess us before Your Father. Today, give me both the opportunity and the courage to confess You before others, with love, clarity, and joy.

I also long in the tender mercies of Christ that among us there may be the following: . . . 3. A feeling of humble reverence. I am disapointed that we come to church without a sense of God or a feeling of humble reverence. There are false religions, strange religious cults and Christian cults that think they have God in a box someplace, and when they approach that box they feel a sense of awe. Of coure, you and I want to be saved from all paganism and false cultism. But we would also like to see a company of people who were so sure that God was with them, not in a box or in a biscuit, but in their midst. They would knnow that Jesus Christ was truly among them to a point that they would have a sense of humble reverence when they gathered together. 4. An air of joyous informality. The great English preacher who was pastor for many years of Westminster Chapel in London, G. Campbell Morgan, left his church and went down to Wales where the Welsh revival was going on under Evan Roberts earlier in this century. He stayed there awhile and soaked up the glory of it. I read the sermon that he preached to his congregation afterward, and it was as near to scolding as that great preacher ever got. He said to them, "Your singing is joyless, your demeanor is joyless, and you do not have the lift or joy that I saw in Wales." He urged them that they might get into a place where that sense of joyous informality might be upon them. 5. A place where each esteems others better than himself or herself. As a result of that, everyone should be willing to serve, but nobody would be jockeying for position. Nothing is quite so bitterly humorous as ambition in the church of Christ. It would be as though a man who was on a lifeboat being saved from certain salty death in the ocean depths should become ambitious to become captain of the little boat on its way to save those on board. It is as though a man were to enter a disaster area where an earthquake had hit and people were dying and would fight for a high position there. The church of Christ is no place for the ambitious or the lazy. . . .

My soul followeth hard after Thee: Thy right hand upholdeth me. - Psalm 63:8

The word translated followeth here literally means to cleave, or to cling. And there is a beautiful double idea of a two-fold relationship expressed in that somewhat incongruous form of speech "cleave after Thee," the former word giving the idea of union and possession, the latter suggesting the other idea of search and pursuit: so that the two main currents of thought in the psalm are repeated in that little phrase; and we are back again - though with a wonderful difference - to the ground-tone of the first section. There the soul thirsteth; here "the soul cleaveth after" - both expressive of pursuit, but the latter, as consequent upon the satisfaction which followed upon the thirst, speaks of a more profound possession and of a less sense of want.

" My soul cleaveth after God." That is to say, inasmuch as He is infinite, and this nature of mine is incapable of indefinite expansion, each new possession of Him which follows upon an enlarged desire will open the elastic walls of my heart so that they shall enclose a wider space and be capable of holding more of God, and therefore I shall possess more. Desire expands the heart; possession expands the heart. More of God comes when we can hold more of Him, and the end of all fruition is the renewed desire after further fruition.

This world’s gifts cloy and never satisfy; God satisfies and never cloys. And we have, and we shall have, if we are His children, the double delight of a continual fruition and a continued desire. So we shall ascend, if I may so say, in ever higher and higher spirals, which will rise further and draw in more closely towards the unreached and unattainable Throne of the Blessed Himself: " My soul thirsteth "; "my soul is satisfied "; " my satisfied soul still longs and follows."

And then there is also very beautifully here the co-operation and reciprocal action of the seeking soul and of the sustaining God. "My soul followeth hard after Thee; Thy right hand upholdeth me." We hold and we are held. We hold because we are held, and we are held while we hold. We follow, and yet He is with us; we long, and yet we possess; we pursue, and yet in the very act of pursuit we are upheld by His hand. We shall not follow unless He holds us up. He will not hold us up unless we follow. All controversies of grace and freewill are reconciled and lulled to sleep in these great words: "My soul followeth hard after Thee; Thy right hand upholdeth me."