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Come My people, enter into your chambers, and shut your doors about you: hide yourself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast. - Isaiah 26:20
As I am writing this, the Covid 19 pandemic is slithering its way across the planet, leaving a path of death and financial devastation in its wake. People have been ordered to stay in their homes, businesses are closed and church services have been canceled. The ordinary, daily rhythm of life has been severely disrupted. People are being forced to make radical adjustments to the current "lockdown" calamity.
Fear, and financial insecurity for some are worse than the actual disaster.
This is not the first time events such as this have ravaged the planet. God’s councils His people to “Hide” themselves as a defense when the “indignation” is present.
What does it mean when God calls us to “hide”? Is He talking about staying indoors in the shelter of a man-made structure; or is He asking us to retreat to a much more secure place in which to ride out any disaster?
I believe that God is calling His people to hide themselves in Him.
Too many Christians are dependent on their pastors and continuous religious activity in order to maintain their relationship with God. While these things are helpful, all of us must be able to endure when all external helps are removed.
It is vitally important that we all know how to “hide” ourselves in God.
I believe that the Lord is using this moment in time to prepare His people for even greater challenges in the future. The physical restraints that are forcing us to shelter in place, are also causing us to evaluate our relationship with God.
He wants us to be able to be still before Him. He is curtailing our religious activities for the purpose of corralling us into spending more quality time alone with Him. He wants us to experience the reality of His presence. He draws close to us in the solitude of our seeking. In this secret hiding place of the heart and mind, God strengthens and nurtures us. We can’t get the intimacy we need with God’s Spirit in crowds, it must be done in solitude. If you are a Christian and are quarantined or asked to stay in your home, count it as a blessing in disguise. Use this time to draw closer to God. Learn to hide in Him. If He truly is your shelter, then you will never be homeless, no matter what circumstances come your way as the result of a pandemic or any other disaster.
It takes discipline to remain still when you have been accustomed to continuous activity. In Luke 10:38-42, Mary, who chose to sit quietly at Jesus’ feet listening to His words, was reprimanded by her hyper-active sister, Martha. Jesus shows us in this incident, that Mary’s choice to be still before the Lord was “needful” and the “best part” of her relationship with God (Luke 10:38-42). Like Mary, you will also be choosing the best part when you slow down and remain listening at the feet of Jesus, reading His word and communing with Him in prayer.
He wants to strengthen us this way for it is vital for our spiritual survival. If your relationship with God is only a superficial, once a week Sunday only affair, your chances of denying Him and falling away from the faith are greatly increased. We have no future apart from Jesus, no hope for eternal life.
A lot of people on the internet and other places are emphasizing the need of being prepared for disaster by stockpiling those material things that are necessary for our physical survival. There’s nothing wrong with that, but if we are depending on those things and they are removed, or we have to flee and can’t take them with us, the most important element you need for survival will be coming with you; for the Lord has said, He will never leave you nor forsake you (Hebrews 13:5). He will be with you always (Matthew 28:20). He wants you to be spiritually prepared and fortified so that you will never leave Him.
Begin practicing to retreat to your hiding place in Him. Take advantage of the current situation to strengthen your relationship with God this way. You will eventually arise out of this apparent calamity the world is experiencing, a much stronger Christian, more able to be a help to others and face those who oppose your faith with courage and confidence.
Copyright 2020 by H. D. Shively
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