Hide and Seek
Psalm 91:1-2
1He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
2I will say of the LORD, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.
If and when we do a search for the words “hide” and “seek”, you can usually find the following definitions:
hide
hid·ing, noun
verb (used with object)
1.
to conceal from sight; prevent from being seen or discovered: Where did she hide her jewels?
2.
to obstruct the view of; cover up: The sun was hidden by the clouds.
3.
to conceal from knowledge or exposure; keep secret: to hide one’s feelings.
verb (used without object)
4.
to conceal oneself; lie concealed: He hid in the closet.
seek
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1. |
to try to find by searching; look for: to seek a solution |
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2. |
( also intr ) to try to obtain or acquire: to seek happiness |
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3. |
to attempt (to do something); try: I’m only seeking to help |
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4. |
( also intr ) to enquire about or request (something): to seek help |
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5. |
to go or resort to: to seek the garden for peace |
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6. |
an archaic word for explore When I was in my younger days, back before electronic age that our
children are accustomed to, the kids in my neighborhood or at school
would all go outside. One of the games that we would play, especially if
there was a mixture of boys and girls, was hide and seek. We would
spend numerous hours at this game as, almost all of the time, everybody
got a chance to be “it”. We would work ourselves into a frenzy looking
for places to hide so that, whoever was “it”, would have a hard time
finding us before we could get tagged and get to base, where you were
safe. Appeasing my curiosity, I looked up the rules of the game, and
found that there are several variations of Hide and Seek. I will give you
just two for today:
Normal variant 1In the normal variant, “it” counts to a number that was designated before the game started. Once “it” reaches that number he or she yells “Ready or not, here I come!” and then starts searching for the players who have hidden. When “it” finds a player, “it” will generally say something along the lines of, “I see you (player), you are hidden in (hiding place),” so that the player will know he or she has been spotted. The first person “it” finds will become “it” in the next round. But “it” continues searching for other players until all the players are found. The last person found doesn’t get any prize or reward but it is accepted that he or she has the best hiding place. If “it” gives up, he or she can yell “Olly olly oxen free!” and the players will come out of their hiding places, a new round will ensue with the same “it”, and the players may or may not choose the same hiding place. [edit] Normal variant 2In a more active variant, hide and seek can be combined with the game of tag. Instead of “it” simply spotting players, he or she has to tag them instead to get them out. Hiders can make a dash for Home Base, which is usually a landmark where whoever is “it” counts off. Touching the base area makes a hider safe, and the aim of the game is to touch base without being tagged. The seeker continues to search for hiders and if he/she finds none then he/she is “it” again in the next game. However, if “it” finds and tags someone before they are able to touch base, he/she must call out in a loud and repeated fashion “All ye all ye outs in free”, “all ye, all ye, in come free”, or where the call has been changed and slurred “Olly Olly Oxen free!”, which means a new “it” has been tagged and all the other hiders are safe to return back to base.
When I reflected on the times my friends and I played this game and
when I studied the text we are sharing today, I have come to the
conclusion that, as Christians, we will always be in a situation where the
enemy will have us in a game of Hide and Seek. It’s already been
established in 1Peter 5:8 when Peter says:
In other words, whether you like it or not; whether you want to or not;
whether you are at work or at home; Satan wants to and will have you
playing his game of Hide and Seek. The good thing about this is that,
while he wants to seek and devour you, all you have to do is to conceal
from sight; prevent from being seen or discovered, obstruct his view, and
conceal yourself from by hiding in the “secret place of the Most High and
abide under the shadow of the Almighty”!
When the Psalmist wrote this, we can come to the conclusion that he was
definitely in a game of Hide and Seek. We can also see that, since he
was in this game of Hide and Seek, he knew where to take refuge. When
you find yourself in the middle of life’s difficulties, when you can feel the
enemy closing in on you, and just when you think “it” is going to get you, you need to immediately go into hiding.
Hide – so that you can see where the enemy is coming from
Hide – because you can, sometimes, see the traps that have been laid out before you
Hide – because, by yourself, the storm that you are in will be too much for you to handle
We have to hide from time to time because, it is in this solitary place
that, you can truly hear what God has to say…If you’re willing to listen.
Psalm 27: says that:
5For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up upon a rock.
There’s something about that tabernacle that will make all the difference when you are definitely in trouble. There is something about that tabernacle that gives you that inner peace and that feeling of comfort and safety. There is something about that tabernacle that, when you are in there, you can lock that spiritual door so that no one can come in and disturb you. There is something about that tabernacle that allows me to search for let God know exactly what I’m feeling and when He speaks I can listen. That tabernacle isn’t what you may consider as these four walls of Greater Bethel Missionary Baptist Church or any other building with a cross and stained-glass windows, wooden pews, choir stand, pulpit, or communion trays. That tabernacle can be your kitchen, your bathroom, your bedroom, your carport, or even your cubicle at work. As long as you are willing to hide God will set you in His pavilion and, in the secret of His tabernacle, He will set you on a rock. But you just have to be willing to Hide…PERIOD!
When you find yourself in a position to hide it is then where you have to be ready to seek. If you go down to verse 8 of the same 27th Psalm, God lets you know that, while you are in there hiding, there comes the time that you need to seek and see just what he has to say to you:
8When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, LORD, will I seek.
That’s the whole purpose of hiding in the first place. You’re hiding, and keeping yourself from being visible from the enemy but you are also hiding so that you seek God and can still hear that still small voice. This is when you are in a position to SEEK GOD.
Then enemy will engage in a game of hide and seek with you. When you find that you are in a game of hide and seek. You must do hide in the secret place of the Most High God and from there you will be able to hear that still small voice. However, when you are in your secret place, when you are concealing yourself from the “fowler and the snare” that has been placed for you, when you are hiding, make sure that there is some seeking involved: 4One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to enquire in his temple. When you are seeking God, you must be prepared to hear the instruction that He WILL give you. You may not necessarily be ready to hear what He has to say but, if you are in the will of God, what He has to say is a lot better that going through your storm by yourself. I’ve said this before, if you could solve all of your problems, you would have solved them by now. If you knew exactly when and exactly where Satan was going to attack you, what would be the purpose of God’s tabernacle? What would be the purpose of David asking God to create in him a clean heart if he didn’t think his heart needed to be cleansed? What was Noah’s purpose of building an ark if he knew ahead of time that it would only rain for 40 days and 40 nights and that he and his family would be spared? Why would Solomon waste his breath asking God for wisdom if he thought he could do without it and, since we’re talking about us, why would we go hiding if we really didn’t want to seek God in the first place? When I was a teenager on my way to finishing high school, I had enlisted into the Army under the delayed entry program. That meant that, even though I was Senior in high school, I was still 17 and, since I was still 17, I could not just go and run into the nearest recruiting office and sign my life away. I had to make sure that I was doing the right thing and, to be quite honest, I really didn’t have a clue what I was getting myself into. So, like any teenager who thought he knew all there was to know about absolutely NOTHING, I went to my Dad and talked to him about it. Granted his time in the Army was many years removed from the time I was going to enlist and there were some obvious differences as far as how and where I was going to go once I got there but, the fact of the matter is that Dad knew the answers to what I needed asked and even though my Recruiter was in the modern Army, my Dad was still my Dad and if I really, REALLY needed a straight answer, whether I wanted to hear it or not, who better to go that to my Dad. My point is this, if you KNOW where you’re going or what you’re going to do or what you’re going through is not necessarily where you need to go or what you need to do or even where you need to go, you better ask the Father and the way you do that is to get in the secret place and seek His face!
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As Christians we are ALWAYS going to be “it”, the enemy is ALWAYS hiding and seeking to find us unaware and off our game. We have chosen to play this eternal game when we chose to bear the name of Christ.However we have the upper hand in playing this game, we have a Heavenly Father who wrote the rules to EVERY game and gave us the key to winning each and every time. Jesus is our secret player, He helps us to see when the enemy is coming our way.