What Are Your Hiding Places

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PROGRAM D-6845

Have you ever wondered why we all try to find a hiding place of some sort or another?  Because we need one.  Oh, do we need one.  We are needy, helpless beings who really aren’t very good at taking care of ourselves.  I don’t care what the humanistic philosophy preaches about self-sufficiency, the fact is, we need a hiding place.  We’re not invulnerable.  We don’t do a very good job of dealing with pain and problems.  So we hide just to cover up—to pretend we’re okay when we’re not; to forget; to escape; to heal; to survive.

That’s okay.  God knows we need to hide.  That’s why he says:  “He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge…” (Ps. 91:4)  That’s why David wrote “The Lord is a refuge for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble.”  (Ps. 9:9)  And in Psalm 32:7: “You are my hiding place, you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance.”

Paul wrote to the Colossians that we should “set our minds on things above, not on earthly things.  For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.”  (3:2-3)  That sounds strange, doesn’t it?  I died?  My life is hidden?  Doesn’t seem that way to me, but Galatians 2:20 sheds more light on this:  “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.  The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

Now, when I understand that my life is hidden with Christ in God, and that I no longer live but Christ lives in me, then I don’t have to find other hiding places.  I know that I have the hiding place which will work.

You see, the problem with all those other hiding places is that they are temporary.  Oh, they fill in the gap for a moment or two, but eventually their effect wears off and I’m exposed again to the hurts and pains of this world.

But when I know that my life is hidden with Christ in God, then I run into that place of refuge at any time and find that I am surrounded with deliverance from my fears, my pain, my rejection—whatever it is I need to hide from.

God knows you need a hiding place.   He has provided one for you in Jesus Christ.  Why would you hide anywhere else?

How do we hide in Jesus?  At those moments when we need to hide, we consciously abandon ourselves to his care.  I often stop and pray, “Lord, I’m coming home to my hiding place; I need a refuge and a fortress; I can’t make it on my own.”  And as soon as I recognize my need for his hiding place, I am comforted and healed, so that I can face my circumstances, whatever they are.