Hide and Seek
“Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit? or Whither shall I flee from Thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, Thou art there; if I make my bed in hell, behold Thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; Even there shall Thy hand lead me, and Thy right hand shall hold me.” Psalm 139:7-10
There are some folks who try, unsuccessfully I might add, to run away from God. Some of them are sinners who naturally don’t want God looking over their shoulders as they live for themselves. They want to be as far from Him as possible. Then there are believers who try to dodge some task or service that the Lord desires for them to do. A good example of running from God that I have personally heard from others is their effort to avoid the call to preach. We’ve heard about Jonah and his effort to avoid preaching to the Ninevites. His story involves a great big fish; you know the one that I am talking about (Jonah 1:17)!
One may avoid God’s call to serve, but they will never be content. One of my former pastors, Roscoe Davis, used to say that a duck can live out of water, but it won’t be happy. We may also be familiar with the story of Esther who was called upon to save her people from annihilation by the king of Persia. Her first cousin, Mordecai, told her that if she decided to remain in the background and refuse to do what was necessary to thwart the king from executing her people, God would find someone else to do His will (Esther 4:14). God’s plans are not deterred by the refusal of His people to obey Him. If Esther had decided to cut and run, rather than be courageous, her name would have gone down into the dustbin of history rather than in the pages of scripture.
While some wish that they could hide from the Almighty, I am glad that He can find us no matter where we run to and for whatever reason. I wouldn’t want to be hidden, even if it was possible, from the One who loves me more than anyone. I want Him to know where I am at all times. It gives me great comfort to know the Lord is watching over me 24/7. When I do mess up and sin, I know that He will not reject me. He leads me back into His righteousness. He is always aware of my needs, and I am always on His radar. It doesn’t get any better than that.