Hide in Plain Sight

9/22/2011

Weather Report From Heaven: Sunny and bright, with an abundance of light and lots of singing and rejoicing.


Bible Verse of the Day: Genesis 3:8 " Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden."

Human nature is to try and hide from our sinful ways. In the garden, after Adam and Eve had sinned and eaten the forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, their immediate response was to try and hide out from God. "Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sowed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves." Genesis 3:7 Well, not much has changed in the last 2,000 years. We are still trying our best to hide our sin from God, but it is impossible. Deep in our souls we know this to be true. When we try to hide our sin, we are only deceiving ourselves and ultimately we make our situation much worse. When we try to just throw a little dirt over it and cover it up and leave it by the side of the road, our sin never gets resolved inside of us. It can fester in our souls for years and do unmeasurable harm to our lives and the plans that God has for them. How much better would it be if we would just bring it before a loving and merciful God and repent of it. That way we could be unencumbered and He could start the cathartic work in our souls of dealing with the root problem of that sin. It can be painful and uncomfortable to be naked in our sin before the Lord, but the alternative of trying to hide out from Him who knows it all already is so much worse. I have found that after I let my sin be examined alone in His presence, He does show me the root cause and helps to give me a road map to hopefully do better in the future. I often find the most valuable hidden gems of His beauty and wisdom during these painful self-examination periods. He does truly want what is best for us, but He cannot bless certain areas of our lives where sin is still present. I have recently been going through some of these painful self-examination periods alone with God and He has revealed some subtle sins that I did not know even existed in my heart and soul, or was unwilling to acknowledge. Self Righteousness, lack of patience, pride, stubbornness and laziness were just a few of the things that he revealed to me around certain areas of my life. I was wondering why I wasn't getting blessed in certain areas of my life, and He showed me what was keeping that from happening. Some things I guess are just to painful for us to admit. But I found that as a result of this process I was able to see the areas in my life that needed help in cleaning up and also what the root causes were. He revealed much to me about my true nature and also what would be required going forward. In a nutshell, if I wasn't fully trusting in Him and Him alone, then He couldn't bless me. The self pride and stubbornness had literally put a wedge between us that were hindering my prayers. When I came to realize this, I felt relieved that I had been shown the answers I had been seeking all along. I had tried to pretend that sin wasn't a problem in my life. I tried to just bury it deep in my soul and with all types of justifications. And truth be told, I wasn't even aware of some of the things that He revealed to me. But although it was a painful process to be so vulnerable, it also was one that reinforced just how much He loves me and each one of His children. We can try to hide in plain sight, or we can go to the source of all life, put our sins before Him, and let the healing process begin. I felt like a giant millstone had been removed from my body and was literally amazed at how light headed I felt when we completed our alone time together. I came to know that this was an ongoing process that would require many more experiences just like this one, alone and vulnerable with my God. But now, rather than being scared, I felt excited for Him to reveal all the places in my life where He needs me to clean it up and cleanse it out, so He can fill me up with His blessings and love. Feeling that love cascade into my heart and fill up those voids after I had repented was the most peaceful feeling I have ever experienced. I only wish I could keep that feeling 24/7, which only exists when you are one on one with your God, no distractions, no other thoughts. Just total abandonment of your will and absolute trust in His.