10/09/2017
Where do you hide, and why? Are you afraid of failure, of displeasing God, sin, or the pain of living? Why do you feel inclined to seek out a hiding place or shelter yourself from life? Many of us hide ourselves from the world around us; while others hide from God Himself.
“Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.”
Romans 6:13-14 ESV
Grace is an amazing and unwarranted gift. We all marvel at the idea of God loving us so much that He would give His own Son into sin and death to redeem us, but then, when we are faced with a trial, we fall back into thinking we are facing it alone.
When I was a child I would sometimes wake up at night to a nightmare. I would pull the covers up over my head and imagine that whatever was frightening me would go away. Finally, my fear would grow too great, and I would scream out for my mother in terror. “Mommy! Mommy!”
There are so many things that frighten us in life, but few are as terrifying as to find ourselves alone in a dark place, not knowing what is around us, or what is just before us as we take our next step.
This is the world of those who have no God in which to believe. Being alone in the dark is the reality of those who depend solely on themselves or other men for salvation, but it can easily become the fear of the Christian if they forsake the promise of grace and face their demons alone... calling on Jesus only when fear becomes too great.
We hide ourselves when we are afraid. In the dark I just spoke of, we cower down and make ourselves into a small ball. When we are afraid of failure we hide ourselves by pretending we don’t care, or by not trying something. When we are afraid of being hurt we hide ourselves from such things as love, or new life experiences, and when we are afraid that we have failed God we convince ourselves that He doesn’t exist.
These are a few examples of how we hide ourselves, and they are not limited to our childhood. This is death... this is boxing ourselves up and hiding our feelings from life itself, and this is not the plan that God has for us. God wishes for us to have life, and to live it fully. Jesus says this in these wonderful words...
“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”
John 10:10 ESV
I was at a funeral this weekend. My wife’s first cousin passed away in her sleep, and the family came together to mourn and find comfort in one another. We came to seek comfort in the faith we lean on every day and to use it as a salve to heal one another. Her husband was shattered... the love of his life was gone, and he was devastated. No words that we could offer him would make this better... only the grace of God and time. He will cry in the coming days, weeks, and months, just as Jesus wept, but this is a part of life, and living. This season will slowly pass as the love she gave him returns time and time again in the form of his children, grandchildren, and God’s mercy and grace. In his grief, he is now facing life, and avoiding the desire to hide himself from it. In death the living suffer, but as in all our suffering we find hope.
“Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,”
Romans 5:3-4 ESV
I knew a woman who lost her husband. She too was devastated, she felt alone, and for months she hid herself by pretending that he was still there. She would set his place at the table, and speak to him over meals as if he sat there with her. Then one day her son came home to visit and saw what was happening. He spoke to her about how unhealthy this was and that she needed to begin living life once more. Her husband was gone, but she was still alive, and God had no desire for her to hide herself in this way. Fortunately she listened, and came out of hiding. This is not just a story, but a real occurrence... I was the son, and the woman was my mother.
Our strength isn’t of ourselves. We can become frightened, lost, broken, abandoned, and shattered by so many things in life. These things make us want to hide ourselves away, and to seek shelter from the pain, or fear, but if we lean on the Word of God we realize that this isn’t what He desires for us. He brings comfort to our suffering, and life back to shattered lives.
“Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the Lord your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you."”
Deuteronomy 31:6 ESV
We have many hiding places and many reasons to hide, but God shines His light into our most remote and secret places of refuge. He draws us out of our hiding places and restores us to life... not because of anything we have done, but out of His grace and mercy towards us. In Jesus we find comfort, and in God we find new lives, and healing for our old ones. His grace is more than sufficient, and His love a salve for every wound.
Prayer:
Father, I thank you for the comfort you bring me in the time of my greatest suffering. I thank you for your grace and the hand you extend to me when I am lost, shattered, and deserve nothing from you. You hold me as I cry Father, and in my tears you heal me. When I am surrounded by fear, pain, and suffering, you reveal your goodness, and show me new life amidst the death that seeks to consume me. In your love I am able to see the life that remains when I feel as though I have lost everything, and I praise you for it. In my desire to hide myself from the world, and even you, there comes a light into my secret place and it leads me out of the darkness. You are my light Jesus, you are my promise Father, in you I find courage, and in this I am restored in hope and faith to the life that remains in me. No matter my fear, my pain, my loss, you are with me, and in you I am alive; in you I hide my frailties; in you I pull the covers back from my head.
Rich Forbes