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HIDDEN

By November 10, 2017Daily Devotionals

HIDDEN
November 10, 2017

Prayer: Today I thank You and praise You for Your mercy and grace to me.  Thank You for reminding me to pass along mercy and grace.

Scripture: Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings. Psalm 17:3 NIV


How wonderful to be hidden in the comfort and safety of God’s shadow rather than hiding from Him! One Friday night we had a sleepover party. All was going well until the girls began chasing each other through the house. In the excitement of the moment, one little girl squirted her water bottle at the others drenching the walls, door and floor. When my daughter came to get me, the girl who had made the mess ran and hid in a closet. My daughter went to get her out of the closet saying, “Come out of there, Silly. At our house we just tell what we did, we don’t have to hide.”

I was not happy with the mess, but it was only water. I was more focused on the lesson my daughter had learned recently and was now applying. Just a few weeks earlier she had accidentally broken a hair clip and had been encouraged by another to hide it from me. Instead, she came to apologize to me and showed me the clip. I told her that we should always confess when we do something wrong.  That is the beginning of making it right. Weeks later she not only remembered this lesson but also shared it with her friend who needed a little mercy at that moment. What a great lesson for all of us.

I meet so many people who are “hiding” from God, feeling they can’t go to Him with their sin. But, God has commanded us to confess. Confessing our sin is the beginning of making things right again. There is not a single mess you have made, not a single sin you have committed that God is not ready and willing to forgive. He can even turn our mess into ministry. Do you have unconfessed sin in your life? If so, let me encourage you to talk it over with God, apologize, and receive His unconditional forgiveness.

Do you encourage an environment of confession or hiding in your classroom and school? Have you witnessed or even given mercy to a student who has confessed wrongdoing? How could our reaction towards the confessing student impact his or her image of a forgiving God?

Kathy Branzell.  Email [email protected]