Hiding in Plain Sight

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Read Lamentations 3:22-26

At a family gathering, 3-year-old cousin Ben invited my husband to play hide-and-seek. “You find me. I’ll hide,” he said. Ben promptly covered his own eyes and plopped down on the deck right in front of everybody and announced, “I’m hiding!” Jim played along, searching all over the area and even lifting Ben up to look underneath him and see if he was hiding there!
 Our job involves continuing to seek God with all of our hearts – even when it hurts, when things don’t make sense, or when we can’t possibly see a positive outcome. God hides in plain sight, making it easy for us to find Him if we will just make the effort. When we do, he promises to listen, to be found, to gather and to restore us.
It is not likely that we go through this process of seeking God just once in our waiting. For me, it has been a cycle of actively seeking, followed by times of resting in His peace and feeling His strength. Then I begin to feel discouragement and anxiety again and need to return to diligent seeking. God doesn’t change in this process. I do. And Satan gets in my head and causes me to question why I have to wait, and whether God is at work, and what more I ought to be doing to take the situation into my own hands. I have to allow God to renew my mind and keep those thoughts from taking root.
Lamentations 3:22-26 has something to say to us as we wrestle through this process. “The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the person who seeks Him.” Waiting and seeking go hand in hand. This is a reminder that we should not be continuously involved in restless striving, but need to find our rest in “waiting quietly” for deliverance from the Lord. Since His mercies are new every morning, each day we have renewed hope that our God will provide what we need in the waiting.

God wants you to seek Him with all of your heart. He WILL be found!
·         How is God speaking to you about seeking and waiting quietly for Him?
·         What step are you willing to take to seek Him today?

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