Our Hiding Place
You are my hiding place; You shall preserve me from trouble; You shall surround me with songs of deliverance. – Psalm 32:7 NKJV.
He who dwells 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 my fortress; my God, in Him I will trust.” – Psalm 91:1-2 NKJV.
When sheriff’s deputies in Oklahoma City tried to serve a search warrant on a suspected drug dealer, he ran out of the house. Carter Hickerson, 28-years-old, ran to another house and hid. Someone saw the man run into the house and told the deputies who then entered the second house and found Hickerson hiding in a clothes dryer. (Daily Oklahoman 02.04.12)
In Clark County, Ohio deputies were searching for an escaped inmate Kelsey Litteral. They found her in a basement of a house hiding in a clothes dryer. (whiotv.com 12.15.11)
In Amarillo, Texas, authorities were searching for 34-year-old Candida Pacheco because of her suspected involvement in a drug ring which was operating out of the Potter County Detention Center. They found Candida inside of a house, hiding inside of a…clothes dryer. (Amarillo Globe News 03.11.2010)
What do you do if you don’t get the job you always wanted? What do you do if you’re in debt so deep that you have to file for bankruptcy? What do you do if your doctor gives you some bad news? What do you do if you fail? What do you do if the worst thing that you can imagine, actually happens? What do you do if the police has a warrant for your arrest? You can run and hide in a clothes dryer, but it’s not going to do you a lot of good is it?
The spiritual truth is that, at one time or another, we all need a hiding place and that clothes dryer isn’t going to do us very much good. We can run, and we can run from the bad things in this life, and still never escape. Where do we turn, what do we do, when our world falls apart? Some people hide in a clothes dryer. Back in the time when King David lived they didn’t have clothes dryers, but they did have caves. David hid out in, and lived in a lot of those caves, while King Saul and others chased him.
David learned from that experience that even while hiding in a cave you still need a better hiding place. The cave was only a very temporary solution. The cave could not really protect him from the reality that there were those who wanted to kill him. The cave could not give him peace in his heart. David learned what we also need to learn, and that is that there is only one real hiding place in this world. That hiding place is in the arms of God. As David put it, “the Secret Place of the Most High…under the shadow of the Almighty.” There we will live in a “refuge” and a “fortress”.
When the worst that can possibly happen in our life happens, we need to remember that God is still God. When the worst that can possibly happen, happens; we need to remember that God still loves us. He loved us so much that Jesus suffered and died for our sins. He took our place on the cross. No matter what may happen or may have happened, know this: God loves you. God loves you and nothing can change that.
When the worst that can possibly happen, happens; we need to remember that God can change things. No, He will not undo what has happened. However, God can bring good out of the very worst that this life may thrust upon us. Romans 8:28 KJV is true. “…we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” But the promise of Romans 8:28 is not automatic; it is conditional. It is dependent upon our loving God, and our seeking to be obedient to what he wants in our lives.
So, when the worst that can possibly happen, happens; let us remember that God loves us and let us continue to love Him seeking to be obedient to all that He wants in our lives. That is where we will find our hiding place “under the shadow of the Almighty.”
(What do you do if the worst thing that you can imagine, actually happens?)