No Hiding

No Hiding

"The eyes of the Lord are on those who fear Him,
on those whose hope is in His unfailing love."
Psalm 32:18

Hiding from someone we don't want to face or something we are afraid to do is an age-old problem that started way back in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve. They had disobeyed God and when they heard His voice, the Bible says that they "hid from the Lord God among the trees of the field". That was about 6,000 years ago, give or take a few, and people have been hiding from God, in a variety of ways, ever since.

Saul was another person in scripture who tried to hide. The account in I Samuel 10 tells the story of Samuel choosing a king for the nation of Israel. Saul had been chosen but "when they looked for him, he was not to be found". Luckily, God was around at the time and told them "he has hidden himself among the baggage". The picture I get is of the baggage car of a train and someone hiding among the luggage like in the movies. In Saul's case, he was hiding from responsibility, hiding from what God had called him to do.

Hiding from God and what He has called us to do just doesn't work. Even David had to come to that realization, writing in Psalm 139:

"Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens you are there;
If I make my bed in the depths, your are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn
If I settle on the far side of the sea
Even there your hand will guide me"

At times, we don't read our Bible because we are trying to hide from what the Lord is speaking to us. At other times, we don't go to church because something isn't right in our lives and we don't want to face it in the presence of the Lord. And it can be pretty hard to pray, when as soon as our knees hit the ground, our mind goes to one thing that the Lord wants to talk about.

We can get away with hiding from people we don't want to face, and we can hide from situations that make us uncomfortable, but there is no hiding from God. We can hide from responsibility like Saul (and miss some great opportunities in life) because of a fear of failure and our own insecurities, but we can never hide from God. The God we serve is all-seeing, all-knowing, and omnipresent. We may as well come out from behind the trees, stand up from among all the luggage, stand face to face with God, and deal with what is going on in our lives. We'll be better off for it!

God Bless
Pastor Joe
Gateway Church