I was too tired to sleep that night, staring blankly at the pillow in front of my face. The words wafted into my consciousness, “Fear God.” I pondered the words, so unexpected, so strange. Fear. My mind played with synonyms, connected words. Fear. Fright. Terror. Words that imply running and hiding. <\/p>\n
Running and hiding? What does that have to do with fearing God? I almost dismissed the thought. But my mind would not let the topic die. <\/p>\n
How often do we run to the least safe place? In a thunderstorm, I take shelter under a tree. In a tornado, the culvert looks safe. In terror of God, I run to hide among self-righteous rags.<\/p>\n
But that is exactly where I should not go. There is where the full brunt of His anger falls. There is where I will never be safe.<\/p>\n
No, the fear of God demands that I run and hide–but not just anywhere.<\/p>\n
Fear of God drives me to run to Christ, to take refuge in Him.<\/p>\n
It is there, enveloped by the all-powerful, righteous, and angry God, that I am safe.<\/p>\n
Because the awful God is the only One who can save me from Himself.<\/p>\n
I run to Him and He spreads Himself over me like a garment, absorbing the full brunt of His terrible anger.<\/p>\n
When I am hiding in Him, His wrath finds only Himself. When I am hiding in Him, His favor is all that remains. I am forever in the eye of the storm, the Terrible God surrounding me, protecting me from Himself.<\/p>\n
I face life’s stresses, little troubles and big. Fear God, the little voice whispers. Run and Hide, I whisper back. I must make the choice to run to Him, to hide myself in Him. He absorbs my trials.<\/p>\n
Temptation to think, to say, to do, to be what I ought not think, say, do, or be. I want to give in to bitterness, to selfishness, to pride, to self-indulgence. Fear God, the little voice whispers. I whisper back, Run and Hide. I must run to the One who endured every temptation. I must hide myself in Him. He bears my desires.<\/p>\n
And then I fall and deep despair fills my every thought. Why do I do this again and again? Why do I continue to sin? Why don’t I do what I know is right? Terror grips me and I want to run away, to hide. <\/p>\n
Where shall I go? Will I hide in my work? Surely there’s enough of that to keep me hidden for months. Will I hide in my home? There’s enough cleaning to do I won’t be found for an age. Will I hide in a book? I have plenty of those, and the library has more.<\/p>\n
Fear God, the little voice says.<\/p>\n
And I will respond.<\/p>\n
In fear, I will run and hide.<\/p>\n
I will run to my terror, I will weep at His feet. “Spread Your wings over me,” I will cry in distress. And He will lift His garment, He will give me refuge in His wings. I will be safe when I hide in my Fear.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I was too tired to sleep that night, staring blankly at the pillow in front of my face. The words wafted into my consciousness, “Fear God.” I pondered the words, so unexpected, so strange. Fear. My mind played with synonyms, connected words. Fear. Fright. Terror. Words that imply running and hiding. Running and hiding? What … Read more Run and Hide<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9470"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9470"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9470\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}