Stop hiding

May 15, 2007

By Greg Ebie

“ … Ninety-eight, ninety-nine, one hundred; ready or not, here I come!” Another game of hide and seek begins. As the older brother I always enjoyed hiding from my younger siblings; I knew all the best places to hide, and they couldn’t find me. I would tell you where I hid, but it is still a secret! Sometimes I would try to hide right under their noses and get safely to home base before they even started looking.

While most of us have outgrown playing hide and seek, some of us, like those Jeremiah prophesied to, try to play hide and seek with God. The people of Judah thought they could hide their sin from God’s sight and be free from guilt.

“ ‘Am I only a God nearby,’ declares the Lord, ‘and not a God far away? Can anyone hide in secret places so that I cannot see him?’ declares the Lord. ‘Do not I fill heaven and earth?’ declares the Lord” (Jeremiah 23:23,24, NIV).

We’ve all made the mistake of thinking there is a safe place where we are free to do what we want and no one will ever know. We might be sitting in front of our computer, in a hotel room on a business trip, at a bar where no one knows our name, across town, in our bedroom late at night; the places we think we can hide our sin are as numerous as the child’s game of hide and seek.

We might be alone and far from home, but we cannot hide from God. The Lord is with us wherever we go. God sees everything we do; He hears every word we speak (yes, the Lord even knows our secret thoughts — can’t hide there either).

Are you trying to hide from God? Have you made the mistake of believing you can justify your sin and get away with it?

When we played hide and seek we would call out, “Ollie-ollie-oxin-free” to let those we could not find come out of hiding and be safe.

God does the same. Not because He cannot find you, but because He knows exactly where you are and what you have done. God sends out a call for repentance that you might be forgiven and set free from the consequences of your sin. If you keep hiding, you are in danger of His wrath. Come out into the open and stop hiding; only there will you find real freedom.

D. Greg Ebie is senior pastor of Praise Assembly of God in Garrettsville, Ohio, and an author of Daily Bread devotionals.