Embrace your Hidden Place
Time. It’s a precious commodity. We value it. We use it–regardless of how profitable we are with it. We demand of it. We long for more of it. We even complain about it. Yet we have absolutely no control over it for we are its recipients, yet a steward.
Earth is time bound. Time happens, one tick-tock after another. Try as you may to stop it, slow it down, speed it up, time itself does not change. 24 hours is 24 hours. Time is a gift from the Creator Himself.
Maybe it’s just me, but have you ever gone through a day where you’ve wondered, “What in the world is going on?” It seems like everything is coming unglued…you included. For me it is usually certain stressers or the pressure of time (we’ve gotta go…sort of thing), those are my triggers.
- What are yours?
- Do you know your triggers?
- If not, seriously pray about it and ask God to reveal them to you.
- Why?? How can you fight a battle when you don’t know who or what the enemy is?
For me like I said, those pressured times or just being stressed (stressing myself out is more like it…dumb, I know!) that is when my true colors come out, therefore, revealing how my relationship with God is going.
When I am stressing out or feeling that pressure from time constraints, my patient and loving husband asks me just one simple ‘stop-me-in-my-tracks’ question, “Have you had your devotions today?”
Usually in those states of mind, my answer is sadly, “NO, not yet!” Then he lovingly says to me, “Go. Go and have your devotions, I’ve got this (whatever I am doing at that time).”
We must learn to love, desire, long for, and see our own need for our own secret place above all for out of that ‘closet’ produces a life that can respond, thus live in Him, through any issue of life…any!
If we love the spotlight more than our secret place, if we think we can do or perform without Him, if we think ‘I’ll get to you later God’ heart attitude, were in trouble because it means we care more about pleasing people than pleasing God.
We call this an idolatrous heart in action.
Want to thrive? Embrace Christ.
Embrace your hidden place.
- Matthew 6:6 “But thou, when thou prayest, enter into the closet, and when thou hast shut the door, pray to the Father which is in secret; and they Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.”
- 2 Kings 4:33 “So he entered and shut the door behind them both and prayed to the LORD.”
- Matthew 26:36 “At that time Jesus went with His disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and He told them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.”
- Psalm 91:1-2 “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the LORD, He is my refuge and fortress: my God; in Him will I trust.”
- Psalm 34:15 “The eyes of the LORD are on the righteous and His ears are attentive to their cry.”
- Daniel 9:18 “O my God, inline Your ear and hear; open Your eyes and look at our desolations and the city which is called by your name; for we are not presenting our supplications before You because of our own merits and righteousness, but because of your great mercy and compassion.”
We do not make requests of God because we are some how righteous, but we are able through God’s greatness and mercy. Daniel knew this all to well. His life was a walking display of such God-mercy inwardly and outwardly, even being a captive. Daniel valued God. Daniel valued his time with God. Daniel valued prayer. It was oxygen. God was life to Daniel.
Unlike Daniel, we stand here today in 2018, having been washed, cleansed, forgiven, and empowered through the shed blood of Jesus Christ on the Cross of Calvary, filled with boundless hope. We have redemption through His blood. How are you living today? Would Daniel, or for that matter God, be appalled? Would they or others see a difference in you from the world?
God desires the same deep intimate relationship He had with Daniel, with you. Just like Daniel, this requires a commitment on your end. Relationships just don’t happen. They take time, energy, resources, and communication! We must remember, God is the Creator, the Potter; we are the creation, the clay. God owes us nothing. We owe Him everything! When God answers a prayer it is because of His love, His mercy, and His undescribable goodness towards us. What a awesome God we serve!
Embrace Christ!
In Christ I am SHE {Saved. Hopeful. Empowered.}
(Excerpts taken from Rooted by Banning Liebscher)
In Christ I am SHE 