Jonah 1

Do you remember playing hide-and-seek when you were younger? Which did you enjoy most, being one of the people who got to hide or being the person who had to count to one hundred and then go and look for everyone else?

The game aimed to find the best hiding place so the person seeking couldn’t find you. The better the hiding place, the harder it is to be found. In the end, though, everyone is eventually found.

When we get older, we may sometimes play a different type of hide-and-seek. But this game has only two players – us and God. Maybe a wrong choice was made. Maybe there’s a grudge being held against someone. Or perhaps someone has something that we wish we had and causes us to be jealous of that person’s life.

Instead of asking God to forgive the wrong actions or attitudes, we default to trying to ‘hide’ the sin or even deny that the action was wrong. We may try to avoid the consequences of our actions by pretending that God doesn’t care about what happened,

Why do you think people try to play hide-and-seek with God? Why do they refuse to ask God to forgive their sin? Jonah was afraid and ran away from God. Rather than obey God, Jonah got on a boat and tried to sail away out of God’s sight. But Jonah learned that God is always there no matter where you go. There is simply no way to escape from Him or hide our actions from Him. Fortunately, God’s love and forgiveness are always just a prayer away to help with a ‘hidden’ problem or personal sin.

Allow God to help you today. Ask for His forgiveness, and let Him show you what lies ahead. All of which He knows, sees, and has already planned ahead just for you.