Can anyone hide from me in a secret place? Am I not everywhere in all the heavens and earth?” says the LORD (Jeremiah 23:24).
How many times in you life have you thought, said, or done something that you were ashamed of? If you’re honest with yourself, probably more times than you can count. Now, add in those times where you didn’t do something that you should have. If you’re like me, that list gets uncomfortably long. So, how do we live with these times? A character in a series of thriller/action novels that I like to read notes that in each decision, we always have two choices; to think or not to think, to speak nor not to speak, or to do or not do. Once you’ve made that decision, you then have a similar two-choice decision to make. Will I say this or that? Will I think this or that? Will I do this or that? Everything that we think, say or do is decided by a series of these two-choice decision.
Somewhere along the line we get to the point where we actually deal with the shameful things in our lives. We can either accept the responsibility for our actions or not. If not, then we can either run or hide. The running may be by filling our lives with so much stuff that we don’t even have time to think about anything spiritual. Or we may hide by putting on an external image of spirituality. We go to every church service, sing all the songs, pay our tithes, visit the sick and the elderly, host church socials and look real good.
Like a little kid telling his mother that she can’t see him because he’s got his hands over his face, we try to do the same thing with God. But it doesn’t matter where we hide, or where we run, God is there. He was always there and knew from before the beginning of time that we would be there. It’d like trying to hide in a glass box while running on a treadmill. Everyone can see that you are getting nowhere.
It’s time to go back to the point where your decision was a choice between accepting responsibility for your thoughts, words and action or running and hiding. While the admission and consequences of sin can (and probably will) be difficult, it takes such a weight off your shoulders and a burden off your soul, that you will wonder why you didn’t deal with it immediately. And this works whether it’s been a minute, a day, a week or a year since you sinned.
Always remember, This is too glorious, too wonderful to believe! I can never be lost to your Spirit! I can never get away from my God! If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I go down to the place of the dead, you are there. If I ride the morning winds to the farthest oceans, even there your hand will guide me, your strength will support me. If I try to hide in the darkness, the night becomes light around me. For even darkness cannot hide from God; to you the night shines as bright as day. Darkness and light are both alike to you (Psalm 139:7-12).
Ken's Fireside Chat 