When Hide and Go Seek Is a Deadly Game

Call it a decades-overdue confession, but here it is anyway. When I played hide and go seek as a child, I convinced myself that if I shut my eyes really tight and covered my face with my hands while hiding, at least that is how I recall it anyway, nobody would ever see me because I couldn’t see anybody outside my shut eyes and covered face. Makes sense, doesn’t it? That was the self-centered little girl’s world I lived in, I suppose. Little did I know how deadly this game could be when played as an adult – not just for me, but for the world at large.

photo in background from morguefile.com

As I dug in for the umpteenth time to studying the Book of Revelation, after years of staying as far away from it as possible given how difficult I have found it to understand, I stumbled upon a “little” verse that blew me utterly away, not to mention brought fresh to my mind my little girl’s foolish belief about hide and go seek. “…and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins [the inmost mind according to Strong’s concordance]and hearts: and I will give unto every one of you according to your works (Rev. 2:23).”

How many of us as adults walk around our lives utterly convinced that if we try to hide ourselves from God by not giving Him our love, our time, our care, and our study of His Word, He cannot see us? Of course we cannot hide from God. He sees everything. EVERYTHING. Right down to our every thought. Even for those of us who believe in Him and love Him, how many of us convince ourselves that if we hold back and hide parts of our lives – the undesirable parts – that He will not see them? How many of us believe we will not be held accountable nor suffer the consequences for the sins we have foolishly tried to keep hidden behind tightly shut eyes and hands-covered faces?

That scripture blew me away because God makes it utterly clear that HE SEES OUR MINDS, HE SEES OUR HEARTS, and HE SEES OUR ACTIONS. And the Bible makes it clear that OUR MINDS, OUR HEARTS, and OUR ACTIONS are all linked together. God commands us to love AND serve Him with ALL OUR HEARTS and ALL OUR MINDS (Joshua 22:5). Repentance and faith in Christ as Lord bring God’s forgiveness, but this is just the beginning. True repentance and faith are followed by a life dedicated to purifying our hearts, minds, and actions such that we may be pleasing in God’s sight and bring Him glory.

When I opened my eyes and took my hands off my face and became an adult, I looked back and saw how foolish I was as a child playing hide and go seek to think nobody could see me because I couldn’t see them. But then, the hide and go seek I played all those years ago was only a child’s game. Playing hide and go seek with God comes with eternal consequences. In fact, it is a dangerous, and ultimately deadly, game when we do not quit hiding, take our hands off our faces, open our eyes and hearts to the Lord, and repent, believe in, and follow the Lord.

If you have convinced yourself you can hide any area of your life from God, whether it be your mind, your heart, or your actions, open your eyes, take your hands off your face, and stop playing hide and go seek with the Lord. Repent of your sins, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and commit to follow Him now and forever. 

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