Daily Journal: 3 August

Don’t Hide

Playing hide and seek is a favourite childhood game that goes back generations. It’s a fun game as a child, but when we’re adults and we’re still playing hide and seek with people or with God, with our lives and our productivity, it’s not a game, it’s a problem.

Judges 6:11b-14, 23-24 (NCV)

Gideon, Joash’s son, was separating some wheat from the chaff in a winepress to keep the wheat from the Midianites. The angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon and said, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior!” Then Gideon said, “Sir, if the Lord is with us, why are we having so much trouble? Where are the miracles our ancestors told us he did when the Lord brought them out of Egypt? But now he has left us and has handed us over to the Midianites." The Lord turned to Gideon and said, “Go with your strength and save Israel from the Midianites. I am the one who is sending you.”... the Lord said to Gideon, “Calm down! Don’t be afraid! You will not die!” So Gideon built an altar there to worship the Lord and named it The Lord Is Peace.

When we’re hiding from what we should be doing we sabotage the productivity of our lives. Habits that we’ve picked up through life to survive can undermine the metamorphisms we experience in order to grow. When God commands us to do something, even if it appears impossible, He brings a peace along with the command. It's a peace with a knowing, and a resolve. That's what we need to listen to. Not the fear or hesitation.

1 Kings 19:3-9 (TLB)

So Elijah fled for his life; he went to Beersheba, a city of Judah, and left his servant there. Then he went on alone into the wilderness, traveling all day, and sat down under a broom bush and prayed that he might die. “I’ve had enough,” he told the Lord. “Take away my life. I’ve got to die sometime, and it might as well be now." Then he lay down and slept beneath the broom bush. But as he was sleeping, an Angel touched him and told him to get up and eat! He looked around and saw some bread baking on hot stones and a jar of water! So he ate and drank and lay down again. Then the Angel of the Lord came again and touched him and said, “Get up and eat some more, for there is a long journey ahead of you.” So he got up and ate and drank, and the food gave him enough strength to travel forty days and forty nights to Mount Horeb, the mountain of God, where he lived in a cave. But the Lord said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

Metamorphism is, generally, the process of change and development through pressure. There are constant regeneration and renewal processes in life that we need to acknowledge. Just as we see in nature, we ought to understand that we mirror these processes in life, too.

Embracing this as part of living is an important part of understanding life. Embracing this as part of living life well helps to eliminate our tendency to hide from what’s happening to us. The tendency to hide can destroy our development – the goals of where we need to be heading – the growth that needs to take place for our life to become better and even brighter. The need to hide is real but it’s not always right. The LORD is always with us in those times. Gideon and Elijah needed reminding. We probably do too.

We may find ourselves in situations where we literally have to hide from attack or an abuser, or even bad health that requires a season of isolation. But those times will not last forever. There is a time for everything under heaven (Ecclesiastes 3).

Don’t hide from life’s experiences. Don’t be afraid of what’s happening. Be courageous even through experiences that bring fear or caution. Courage is not being unafraid, it is deciding on courage despite being afraid and making choices to overcome; choices that are initiated by the LORD. He is with us and commands us to overcome.

Joshua 1:8-11 (NIV)

Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” So Joshua ordered the officers of the people: “Go through the camp and tell the people, ‘Get your provisions ready. Three days from now you will cross the Jordan here to go in and take possession of the land the Lord your God is giving you for your own.’”

Here we have clear steps to follow:

1. Meditate on God’s Word, be instructed by it, obey it’s teaching and it’s principles.

2. Then you will be prosperous and successful.

3. Don’t be afraid, don’t be discouraged, don’t allow yourself to hide. God goes with you, giving you direction.

4. Prepare yourself for what you need to do and to be.

5. When God leads you, go and do it and be it.

6. Take possession of the life God gives you and live it the way He instructs you to live it.

7. Then He will cause you to succeed.

I pray the Lord’s peace, courage and blessing over you as you learn to do this well, every step of the way, trusting in Him.