Today's Devotional

January 12, 2005

Subject:  Hidden In Full View

Colossians 3:3 - "For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God."

I was talking to a friend last night who was having problems with her sister.  The sister told my friend that she will now begin to point out all of her sins as she sees them.  Even though my friend didn't see it this way, I was like Tony the Tiger, "greeaaat!!!"  Well what makes it so great?  Surely they will see that we are imperfect and surely we will be poor witnesses of Jesus Christ.  We may even cause them to reject God altogether.  This can't be a good idea.  Not true my friend.

This is exactly what God has called us to be in the world.  Whether it's our sister who sees us or whether it's the rest of the 6 billion people on the planet, God has put you here and put me here so that we can live out this life as believers in front of the unbelieving world.  It matters not how perfect we are or how good we think we're doing at living this life.  It also matters not how terrible we think we are and how much we're "letting God down."  The bottom line is that we live our lives as the scripture says, "hid with Christ in God."  Have you ever sung a song or given a presentation that you thought was totally terrible and afterwards everyone kept remarking about how great it went?  That's what  happens when we live hidden with Christ in God.  The world watches believers to see them stumble and fall and when they make a mistake, they see what God wants them to see because we are hid in Him.  They sometimes see the stumble and they sometimes see the full-blown fall, but in every situation, God's purpose has been fulfilled because He is our covering when we are hid in Him.  

Our lives and every action may be judged by the world as being good, not so good, bad or somewhere in between those adjectives, but in the end, God wants us living our lives in front of the lost world.  And while we think that they only see us, we're actually covered in His righteousness and our life is hidden with Christ in God.  To the world, we're hidden in full view.       

Carlen