Quotes 11.…. “….you are under the unfortunate impression that just because you run away you have no courage; you’re confusing courage with wisdom.”
The speaker of that quote was not at all what he pretended to be. He hid behind curtains, used bells and whistles of all sorts to make himself appear to be THE grand, all knowing, and all powerful one. Some wizard he was….
He was pretty ordinary….pity he didn’t apply his words of wisdom to his own life and come out from hiding behind that curtain sooner…. It takes courage to step out of hiding and be real.
We have an enemy who is a liar and a deceiver of the brethren ( John 8:44, Rev.12:10, Rev. 13:14, Gen. 3:13) He prefers to keep us in pretense.
One of the enemy’s most effective weapons against most of us is fear. Satan deceives us, we choose to believe him over believing God, we find the truth out for ourselves by experience, then instead of running TO God, we hide behind our own curtain, displaying our own bells and whistles…those of denial, pretense, and excuse.
We too are often under the unfortunate impression that running and hiding means we are weak and cowardly. A usual tactic of the enemy...take a little truth and twist it....
Hiding our sin from God IS cowardly. And futile.
“Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.” (Hebrews 4:13)
Hiding our sin from ourselves is not only cowardly but catastrophically unwise.
It does takes courage to evaluate ourselves in the Light of the holiness of God because we …“all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”(Romans 3:23)
I am convinced that only when we KNOW the love of God can we come out of hiding.
Only when we have the Presence of Jesus Christ by the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit, can we see ourselves both as we are, (sinful to the core….), as well as loved by our Creator God beyond human capacity and beyond human understanding.
Don’t confuse courage with wisdom, nor fear and hiding with safety.
There is only one safe place to hide. ….“hidden with Christ in God”(Col. 3:3) “We have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body..” (Hebrews. 10:18-20)
