For the word of God is living and effective and sharper than any double-edged sword, penetrating as far as the separation of soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It is able to judge the ideas and thoughts of the heart.  Hebrews 4:12 HCSB

Remember being a kid and playing Hide and Go Seek.  The person who is “it” counts to 10-20 and everyone else finds a hiding place.  When the person finishes counting they hunt for those who are hidden.  It was always fun to try to find that one place where they would never dream of looking.  Perhaps you had a hiding place you could go to when you made your parents or your siblings angry.  Even as an adult, I sometimes like to hide or run away for a spell.  But we can never hide from God.  We can try our best to run away from Him, but he sees all.

So I want us to think about a few things today.  First, I am amused by how some of us act so differently in the presence of our pastor or a pastor.  You know what I mean, you watch your language more, you are a little kinder.  You strive to be good in front of your pastor.  Now I am as guilty as the next person of this.  Well, big news flash, when your pastor isn’t around, God is watching.  Yep, God himself, is watching your every move and listening to every word. He even knows what you are thinking.  I heard it said one time that before you post something on social media to ask yourself if God would approve?  You see you may be friends on social media with your pastor but God sees your posts as well.

So also think about this, have you been playing hide and seek with God?  Man has been hiding from God since Adam.  In Genesis 3:9-10, God goes into the garden after Adam and Eve have eaten the forbidden fruit and asks Adam where he is and Adam replies, “I heard you were in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked so I hid.”  Now those of us reading that verse may think, “how silly, you can’t hide from God”.  Perhaps Adam didn’t fully understand God’s omnipresence and omniscience at the time.  Maybe he didn’t know that we can’t really hide from God.  We may think Adam was silly, but how many times do we do that very same thing?  We slink around in secret behind someone’s back doing something that we know we shouldn’t do.  We hope that no one else finds out, but news flash, God already knows.

Now most importantly here, is the fact that God not already knows everything we do, but He is also the one that is going to judge us.  He has the final say in whether we spend eternity in heaven or in hell.  Now that may not concern you, but for me that is a big deal.  You see I hate the sweltering hot, humid summers here in south Louisiana.  I have no desire to be thrown into a lake of fire and spend my eternity in a furnace.

So I have tried to clean up my act to the point where I try to please God in all that I do.  Now sometimes my anger gets the best of me and I fall miserably short of that goal.  When that happens I repent as quickly as possible and ask for God’s help in having better control of my anger.

So I am asking you to give this some serious thought.  Is there something that you have going on in your life that you would never want God to know about? Is there something going on that causes you to try to hide this from others?  You see, it has been my experience that if I am doing something I don’t want God to know about, then I don’t want anyone else to find out either.  Or at least I have certain individuals that I don’t want to find out about what I am doing.  So if you are in that situation today know this, God sees all and God knows all.  God is present with you when you are doing good things and He is present with you when you are doing bad things.  So if you are doing something that would greatly disappoint someone you care about here on planet earth, then it is probably already breaking God’s heart.  But there is hope.  You can repent.  You can ask God’s forgiveness.  You can turn away from your sinful behavior and ask God’s help in staying away from whatever it is.

And last but not least, consider this.  God will not turn a blind eye to our sin.  He may give us a short time to repent and get our act together, but we will face certain punishment.  Our scripture passage today tells us that God’s word is alive and active.  It tells us that it is sharper than any double-edged sword and that it penetrates and cuts through.  It tells us that it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.  So even our bad thoughts are known to Jesus.  Make yourself right with God today.  We never know how much time we have on earth.  When God calls us home, it is too late to try to make things right.  If we stay in close relationship with Jesus Christ through Bible reading and prayer this will help us to stay close to Him and to avoid disappointing Him.  Also connect with a church that has a good Bible teaching pastor.

Have a great day!