Can we hide under a bushel? NO!

— Hebrews 4:12 “For the word of God is full of living power… It exposes us for what we really are.”

I have sometimes wondered if other people know what I am thinking. Some have even told me that I easily betray my feelings by my facial expressions and body language; it appears that I am quite transparent. Yet I believe I am quite capable of preventing most people from knowing my inner thoughts. By and large I have come to operate as a creature of privacy and anonymity in a culture that tolerates such attributes and even protects them.

Sometimes I believe that this self-protected isolation from others is impenetrable. As an actor on the stage of life I have learned appropriate behaviours, speech, and attitudes that are adapted and improvised over my lifetime to fit the scene. God by his Word and Holy Spirit has been correcting me and helping me see this is a self-deception and does not reflect what it means to be a new creation.

I can recall with regret my lifestyle at age 20. I found myself in a “consenting” yet inappropriate dating relationship that embodied this deviant behaviour. I portrayed myself a fundamental Christian, yet privately I was in sin. When two people enter into immoral behaviour together our society responds by saying we should not criticize what consenting adults do in private. This is a smoke screen designed by our culture to protect our private, hidden lives from scrutiny. This cultural norm should not surprise us, as during the last two hundred years our culture was learning quickly learning how to remove God from public view. As we make our way through the 21^st century we believe we do so without restraint or review of the Almighty.

So when we (me and thee) read the Bible we should come to realize how foolish we all can be. Hebrews 4:12 explains that “…the word of God is full of living power. It is sharper than the sharpest knife, cutting deep into our innermost thoughts and desires. It exposes us for what we really are” (New Living Translation). This should give us pause.

What’s more, Ephesians 4:30a implores us: “…do not bring sorrow to God's Holy Spirit by the way you live.” We act as though God only sees our public behaviour (if that) and it really doesn’t matter anyway because he forgives us (assuming one has received forgiveness). True children of God have his Spirit inside of us and he sees all things—our hidden motives, thoughts, feelings, and desires. We can’t fool our heavenly Father! We who are “identified as his own” have no secrets from God. While today we fear about protecting our privacy against identity theft, we ignore the One from whom nothing is hidden. We “are naked and exposed.”

The good news is that God doesn’t leave us unprotected. When we seek protection by protecting ourselves through ‘perceived’ privacy of thoughts and actions, we forget that we are exposed to God’s ever-watchful eyes. But as Hebrews 4 continues in verses 14-16: “That is why we have a great High Priest who has gone to heaven, Jesus the Son of God. Let us cling to him and never stop trusting him. This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same temptations we do, yet he did not sin. So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it.”

My prayer is that we wake up, open our eyes to this reality, and come boldly to our high priest and the throne of grace. Amen.