Hiding in Jesus

Saint Paul in his letter to the Colossians says, "For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God." (3.3) It is a wonderful image that Paul gives us to help us understand our life as a Christian disciple: to be hidden, hidden in Christ. This is the goal of the born-again life, the sanctified life. Paul says it another way when writing the Church at Rome: "...reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus." (Romans 6.11)

When we are hidden in Christ we are protected from the hard temptations of the devil, and the hard knocks of life. That is not to say there will not be temptations, or hard knocks; rather it is to say that we shall not be overcome by them. Jesus himself faced many a hard knock and temptation. Tempted by the devil in the desert, tempted by the sorrow of the tragic lives and circumstances surrounding his world 2000 years ago. Tempted by the hard knocks of betrayal, torture, and death. But he showed that if one keeps their eyes affixed upon the Father and His purposes even to the point of death, then you shall be raised up to Glory.

I like the man in the snowball because I think it illustrates what might happen when we do not hid completely in Christ. The mans arms, legs and head are sticking out and if it was a real circumstance then as the ball rolled down the hill the poor guy would experience broken limbs, and bruised face. Presuming he could breath inside the ball, if we was totally IN the ball these breaks and bruises would not occur in the same way. (Are you working with me here?)

How do we know we are not in Christ? When our hearts, minds, and bodies (and our egos) are constantly being bruised and banged about by the temptations and hard knocks of life! We hold feelings of anger, unforgiveness, hopelessness, impatience, envy, greed, pride, and the like.

We need to pull ourselves into the heart of Christ and allow His grace and mercy surround us, to give us His peace and contentment. And I think this is done when we surrender our lives (ie hide ourselves in Christ, reckoning ourselves to be dead to sin) to the fullness of God's presence though genuine humility. An since that was good enough for Christ, the Son of God, I suppose it should be good enough for me. How about you?

LORD have mercy, Brian