Hiding (Fantasy vs Reality part 4)

     I have this great older brother named David.  He's smart, talented, brave, handsome, loving, kind and above all else he loves the Lord with all his heart.  Everywhere we go people admire him.  All the women want to marry him and all the men want to be him. He's a natural born leader full of humility and godly character.  But as perfect as my big brother may seem he's had some major issues to say the least.  I mean one day he's out there spreading the gospel, writing praises to the Lord and the next he's fighting, getting caught up with the ladies and doing things that he should be arrested for.  Some see him as a victim of circumstance and others make him out to be no more than a criminal.  But no matter how you see him you can never deny God's hand on his life.  It seems like no matter what happens, no matter what he does or what he seems to go thru he always finds his way back to the Lord.  Now as a younger sibling, just coming to know the Lord, you could imagine how confusing his life was for me.  As I'm sure it was for you since we have the same big brother.  My big brother David is your big brother as well.  It's our big brother in the faith, Kind David.

     King David's life was filled with ups and downs, victories and loses and most of all sin and restoration.  For many years as a new christian the life of David left me very perplexed and uncomfortable.  How could you be in obvious sin one season and then lead God's people in true, sincere, acceptable worship the next?  Was it an abuse of God's grace?  Did he have a special standing with the Lord that the rest of us do not?  I mean what could it be?  How do you go from struggling with sin in a dark pit to victorious praise.  Why doesn't David struggle with long bouts of guilt and condemnation?  Why didn't he just gracefully bow out of leadership and lead a quite, "normal" christian life like the rest of us?  Now, I could be wrong but I think part of David's victories steamed from living this ancient truth that nothing can separate us from the love of God (Romans 8:35-39).  It's because David had discovered the secret to hiding himself in the Lord.  In the good times he worshiped God.  In the bad times he worshiped God.  When he was happy he walked and talked with God.  When he was in trouble he ran to God and poured out his soul to God.  When he did well he gave God the glory, offered sacrifice and threw a party.  When he sinned he confessed, hid himself in the Lord and waited on God to restore him.  Thru all of King David's ups and downs, ins and outs and back and forth one thing never changed.  His faith in this one truth, that he was God's and God was his own.  God was his shelter, his stronghold, his peace.  Time with God is were he found not just joy, but happiness.  It was his safe place in times of trouble and a place for cleansing and forgiveness when he had sinned.  God was his comfort when his heart was broken and if David was here with us today I truly believe that he would tell us that God was his best friend.  All in all the heart of God was David's home (Psalm 30).

     We have to know that God is for us and not against us.  The Bible tells us that, "No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it" (1Corinthians 10:13).  When we are in the midst of heartache, strongholds and trials it's important for us to stay not just close to the Lord, but up under the Lord.  It's a time to see God as a fortress in which we can hide ourselves when the enemy comes to steal, kill and destroy (John 10:10).  We can not and were not meant to handle these trials on our own.  For it is God who fights our battles (Exodus 14:14). We were created to be in continual fellowship with God and to allow him access into every area of our lives and heart.  Even the areas that are dark, ugly, painful and shameful. Our God is a refuge.  The place to find rest when we've been running away from our pain and finding unbiblical ways to cope with it.  He's the place to find peace from the chaos and chatter in our heads that seem to plague us with doubt and condemnation.  He's the place to find joy when our hearts are breaking and/or shattered from the harshness of living in a fallen world filled with imperfect people, sickness/disease and worst of all, death.  God can be that secret place you hid in when the world comes crashing down on you because once again you just cant seem to do things "the right way".

     We hide ourselves in God by dedicating ourselves to reading and memorizing the scripture, continual prayer, worship/ praise and thru constant refocusing on God,  the things that please him and not our circumstance.  Imperfections, bad habits, addictions, we can bring them all with us to seek the Lord.  Because only he can help us lay them down.  Only he can shelter us from the storms of life.  Only he can pick us back up again, clean us off and redirect us on our path.  I praise God that we do not have to do it on our own.  We can hide ourselves in the shelter of his wings everyday, all day, for as long as it takes and wait on him to restore us.
   

                                                                                                            -Sarabeth