Have you ever played an intense game of hide-n-seek? I mean truly “in it to win it” level playing. You find your perfect hiding spot, get comfortable, then try to stay as quiet as you possibly can. You hear the seeker find a few others then start making their way over to you. They get within touching distance of you and now your heart is beating hard, you are watching your breath to make sure they can’t hear you, and you try to stay as still as possible. Pause.
Though Hide-n-Seek is a harmless and fun game we can all relate to the experience above. It is almost fearful when the seeker is that close to you. Why do I open the post with this? Great question. Let’s begin with a verse I recently read that started this thought:
“And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are uncovered and laid bare to the eyes of Him to whom we have an account to give.”
Hebrews 4:13 LSB
A Hidden Life
Many people live their entire lives playing Hide-n-Seek at a spiritual level. They are constantly hiding from something (they don’t want to admit that “something” is God) and so everything they do is wrapped in some form of anxiety or fear. I am sure we all can relate by looking back into our lives when we were without Christ. As we committed sin we would seek to hide it from the view of God, others, and even ourselves. When someone would get close to uncovering our mistakes we would get restless, fearful, and full of anxiety and worry. When we come to Christ we do the opposite. We lay it all out for Him to see, admit to every single act committed, then trust Him to forgive us from them and transform us into new creatures.
Living an ‘Exposed’ Life
However, even after we have been saved we can find ourselves falling back into the desire to hide our sins. Or maybe it’s to hide our intentions, or desires, or lusts. Either way we are doing some form of hiding which is not biblical. God would rather us live in perfect openness and be exposed. Unafraid to admit to Him all of our thoughts, desires, sins, etc. The verse above gives us perfect motivation to do so: “all things are uncovered and laid bare” to our Lord. That is, if you tried to play Hide-n-Seek with God you would lose right away.
God knows your every thought, your every sin, your every desire, your every intention, your every…thing. To try and hide anything from Him (which, by the way, is the first thing humans try to do when sinning against God [Gen 3:8]) is simply foolish.
Joy of the Exposed
Something happens when you stop trying to hide from God and simply live your life before Him honestly and openly. You start to receive a grace which this world does not know: Joy. I know for me I’ve seen this most clearly in my prayer life. Many times I will begin to pray and only pray for things that are on my prayer list. The result is a pretty dry prayer life with no real communication happening. After the above verse clicked for me I began my prayer time by exposing everything before God. Admitting He knows everything I need prayer for and all the things which are hidden in the back of my mind came to be exposed before God and myself. The result was a rich and blessed prayer time with God. Real Prayer.
Another example is all the thoughts you have throughout the day. I am human, you are human, we are all human. I say that because I KNOW YOU KNOW the type of thoughts that can appear in our wicked minds. Rather than trying to brush them aside in your own strength just openly reveal them to our Holy God. Admit the thought appeared in your mind, show God the thought and confess you do not want it in your mind, and watch Him dispose of it instantaneously. That is the Joy of the Exposed. There is no more hiding, no more secret sins, no more secret desires, etc. Just a sincere life of faith before the Living God.
I recently watched a Cop show where various cops were pulling people over and discovering they were hiding illegal drugs and weapons. The people they pulled over are always full of fear, anxiety, sorrow, anger, and lies. Lots of lies. They were living a life of Hide-n-Seek, hoping to never get caught. Whereas we should have confidence that if we were ever to get pulled over by a cop (I’d like to say we never will) we would have no need for fear, anxiety, lies, worry, sorry, etc. Why? Because we have already been living an honest and open life before an even higher Authority: The Living God.
Action
- Praise God for His omniscience of our lives
- Confess to God your temptation to play Hide-n-Seek with any area of your life
- Ask God to uncover every little detail of your life that you may life “uncovered and laid bare” before Him
- Read/Listen to this post’s song: Search Me, O God