Hiding Places

Can anyone hide in secret places so that I cannot see him?” declares the LORD. “Do not I fill heaven and earth?” declares the LORD.

— Jeremiah 23:24

Ever memorize Scripture verses using those little Navigator cards? Shortly after making the life-altering decision to follow Jesus in 1980, I purchased a set of those memory cards and set about "hiding" God's word in my heart. The verse quoted above was one the very first ones that I commited to memory.

In recent years, I have "used" this Scripture to guilt my kids into confessing their childish attempts to hide their "sins" from the parents. It usually worked like this..."You know, I don't have the ability to follow you around and see everything you do. But, God does...BLAH, BLAH, BLAH." Usually I could draw from my own extensive experience as a sneaky, mischief-making youth and fill in the blanks with assumptions. Usually I hit the nail on the head and they would "confess." Usually.

So I thought.

In the here and now, I have begun to reconsider my life in total -- career, devotion, priorities, etc. And this Scripture has come back to haunt me. (Along with a whole host of others... that's for another day...)

Consider the fact that the meaning of the words translated "secret places" carries the connotation of a hiding place for the perpetration of a crime. It not just the old ostrich with it's head in a hole so he thinks the whole world around him must be just fine. It's not talking about a quiet retreat, a vacation, a closet in your house. This as much an attitude as it is an actual place. It's as much a spiritual "hideout" where criminals plan, with willful intent, to sin against God and man -- premeditated sin (lust, slander, theft, etc.).

This is very personal, my friend. I am one who has been shown to have a criminal's intent in my heart -- over and over again. I have willfully done what is evil in the sight of God. In the "secret places" where I think no one can see me or find me out.

So have you.

We are all so very flawed and save for the saving grace of God through Jesus Christ, we are all guilty. I don't know what your particular "criminal intent" is but God the Father does. The LORD Jesus does. The Holy Spirit does. Might as well admit it and turn 180 degrees back to the narrow way. Place yourself under His amazing grace. Today.

I run in the path of your commands,
for you have set my heart free.

- Psalm 119:32