Where are you hiding?

I don't know about you, but I tended to hide when trouble came my way. I hid in my work at home. I hid behind a mask that says everything is okay. I hid under my covers and didn't want to wake up. Maybe you even hide from your kids (the little devils!)...Did you know that it is okay to hide? Just not like you would think...As I have matured as a believer, I have found another place to hide that hides me much better than my methods and it does not keep me in seclusion. I have found my hiding place in the Lord. Yes, I still might have to get off by myself to "hide in Him" and yes I still have to ward off my regular hiding methods on a consistent basis, but it really works! "Hide me under the shadow of your wings." "You shall hide them in the secret place of your presence." "You are my hiding place." "For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in his pavilion in the secret place of his tabernacle he shall hide me." It is secret. It is safe. It is healing and protecting. I regularly hide myself in my room with him when the onslaught comes.

Also, though, we cannot hide ourselves from God. "My sins are not hidden from you." "He will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the counsels of hearts." "The darkness shall not hide from you." "For he knows the secrets of the heart." Sometimes I tend to think that if my sin process stays in my heart and mind and does not come out in actions, that I have conquered this sin, but the heart is deceitful above all things. He knows a word before it is on our tongue, and Jesus revealed the sinfulness of thoughts even if we don't act on them. My thoughts are not hidden from him. I was not even hidden when I was created in my mother's womb. This is comforting and fear-producing. He sees all.

Some things of God are hidden from us because we cannot obtain that knowledge. "But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory." "For as high as the heavens are above the earth are his ways above our ways and his thoughts above our thoughts." Some of these hidden treasures he reveals to us as we come to know him more. "I will give you the treasures of darkness and hidden riches in secret places." "The secret things belong to the Lord our God; but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever." Thank goodness...

Perhaps the most fear producing of all, though, is when God chooses to hide himself from us... "There his power was hidden." "Do not hide yourself from my supplication." "You hide your face, they are troubled; you take away their breath, they die and return to their dust." "He hides his face." When we come to him humbly in our sin, he is right there with open arms. Sometimes, though, when we are set in our ways and relishing our sin, when we have qualms with others and have not made reconciliation, he does not listen to us. He gives us over to that choice, and then waits patiently for our return once we fall down and bust our face and bum! I have caused God to turn away from me in my sin. This is not to say that God does not graciously come and rescue us from our muck sometimes, but he is waiting for a certain attitude of the heart to truly get in and do the work needed. The most horrifying act of God hiding himself came when Christ was on the cross, his only son crying out for his dad. Our sin was so shameful laid upon his son, that God could not even look. Praise God that Jesus took the ultimate punishment. Because of Jesus, God does not completely hide himself from us as we deserve.

He is present. Hide in him. Don't hide from him, and he won't hide from you! Oh...and don't hide Him from others! "I have not hidden your righteousness within my heart; I have declared your faithfulness and your salvation; I have not concealed your lovingkindness and your truth from the great assembly." Go hide out...