‘You are my hiding place, you will protect me from trouble, you surround me with songs of deliverance’. Psalm 32 :7
What does hiding in Jesus look like?
I think of hiding places as being calm and still and secret, but how does this work in my everyday life? How do I tuck myself into Jesus while at the same time reaching out and ministering to my family? Practically speaking I cannot literally hide. There are too many things that require my attention and time. So what does hiding in Jesus look like?
It must, it needs to be a spiritual act. We live on two planes. What our spirits are engaged in and what our physical selves are doing. And the mind, will, and emotions are the tie between the two.
It requires our spirit to be engaged with what our soul is thinking and feeling. What are the thoughts running through our minds? The verses in 2 Cor. 10: 3-5 instruct us to take every thought captive and brought under the authority of Jesus.
Could being captive, really be another way of saying that I am hidden in Christ? And those renegade thoughts that take me out of the hiding place are really my enemies to disrupt the peace of God?
What we think about has so much power. So living in awareness of where our thoughts take us is one key to staying hidden in Christ. Wake up! Be aware! Think on Christ. Think about his love and promises. Put into practice Galatians and the fruit of the spirit. Live aware.
Hiding places bring to mind small, dark, narrow places, but really, what if, by just changing our mindset of what hiding places are, we find the spacious place of rest in Jesus?
He is light and in him there is no darkness. So, imagine his hiding place as being filled with the most wonderful, warm light and everywhere else is darkness. Where would you rather be? In the light. The world outside of the light is dark and scary and hard to find the way. That place, the darkness, is just a step away from the light. One step and I can be plunged into the darkness. One step and I find the light of his hiding place.
I think most of my battles are in the mind. This is where I fight everyday. It is good to remember that I live two lives. The one I see and feel and experience with my physical body and the other, the hidden life. The life hidden in Christ. Of course, the two lives must mesh and merge, but so often my body may or may not be doing what my heart and my spirit is directing. Or, I may be going through the motions and my spirit is really struggling to believe the good in what I am doing.
‘You are my hiding place, you protect me from trouble, you surround me with songs of deliverance’. What comfort this verse provides. I am protected from trouble in that hiding place. My anxious heart is soothed by songs of deliverance. The question arises—am I hiding in him and are my ears open to hearing him? What am I placing before my eyes to see and ears to hear? Am I filling my mind with great and good and godly things and thoughts?
