Are you hiding?

Remember when as children we would play hide and seek?  Some of my friends could find the most ingenious and sneaky places to hide and never be found.  I think some just got fed up of waiting and went home for tea or found other games to play.  As a rule, I would be found fairly quickly, yet we would have great fun.

You may be wondering what any of this has to do with my blurb for this month?  Well,I wonder how many of us are hiding, or at least trying to hide from God?

There are many examples in scripture where great prophets have tried to hide or run away from God, but all were found and used to God's glory.  So who of us are trying to hide from God and/or life?

We can find many ways to hide whilst we think we are not hiding at all.  We can and do get so wrapped up in the jobs we do, work, family, home, or helping others by volunteering for as many jobs as we can fit into our busy lives.  Some of us even try to hide in church, and let religion take over when we should be working on our relationship with God, and his Son, Jesus Christ. We can also think that all the 'good works' we do will let God leave us in our snug hiding place and not bother looking for us.  How wrong can we be?

When we develop our relationship with God, he has the most wonderful gifts for us, all free of charge.  We need to ask God for his forgiveness for all the wrong things we have done, and ask the Lord Jesus Christ into our lives.  But to do this we need to come out into the open.  No more hiding, but stepping out into the light. You see no matter how hard we try or how clever we think our hiding place is, we cannot hide from God. We can have the unconditional love that God has to give us, but the most amazing thing is that He accepts us just as we are. We can think that because we are not perfect, God wants nothing to do with us,  so we hide away, trying to become perfect using our own strength.

So, my friends,  I would ask you to spare a thought for God and his love for you in the busy lives you live. In all the rushing around we do,  we cannot hear God when he speaks to us.  We all need a little quiet time, and today is a good time to start.  So let's stop 'ducking and diving' and let God's love into our lives.

Geoff Smith