Ready or not, here I come. Our neighbors’ children walked over to play with Thomas. The older just completed kindergarten. Her sibling is three and Thomas is two. The oldest counted to ten. Her sister darted behind a porch column and hid her own eyes. Thomas followed her, giggling happily, then circled back to where big sister was counting. He stood right at her elbow waiting to be found. Having experienced the game with classmates and with a younger sibling, she turned in the opposite direction and looked for her sister first, giving Thomas a fair chance, but he would not be deterred.
If I can’t see you, then you can’t see me. This is the logic of a toddler learning to play hide and seek. It’s the posture of a potty training child who ventures just out of sight or turns his back on you instead of going to the potty. It’s the game Adam and Eve invented in God’s perfect garden, one we’re still playing today. But God is not surprised. He never is. His prophets foretold our propensity for hiding thousands of years ago.
“For I see everything they do. They are not hidden from my presence, nor does their guilt escape my gaze.”
Jeremiah 16:17 TPT
https://bible.com/bible/1849/jer.16.17.TPT
“Sin whispers to the wicked, deep within their hearts.
They have no fear of God at all.
In their blind conceit, they cannot see how wicked they really are.
Everything they say is crooked and deceitful. They refuse to act wisely or do good. They lie awake at night, hatching sinful plots. Their actions are never good.
They make no attempt to turn from evil.”
Psalms 36:1-4 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/psa.36.1-4.NLT
“For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.”
Romans 3:23 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/rom.3.23.NLT
“God, my life is an open book to you.
You know every sin I’ve ever done. For nothing within me is hidden from your sight!”
Psalms 69:5 TPT
https://bible.com/bible/1849/psa.69.5.TPT
“Who has made that happen? Who has carried it out? Who has created all the people who have ever lived?
I, the Lord, have done it.
I was with the first of them.
And I will be with the last of them.””
Isaiah 41:4 NIRV
https://bible.com/bible/110/isa.41.4.NIRV
“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”
Hebrews 13:8 NIRV
https://bible.com/bible/110/heb.13.8.NIRV
He is Emmanuel, ever-present God with us. He sees all, hears all, knows all. Nothing and no one in all of creation is hidden from His sight.
Before his death, Moses gave God’s charge to the people of Israel. Joshua had been appointed as their new leader before entering the promised land to subdue it. He had been Moses’s apprentice, his helper. He had seen things no one else in Israel had been privileged to see and heard things no one else had heard. God Himself spoke to Joshua, “I will be with you as I was with Moses. I will never fail you or abandon you.” (Joshua 1:5) God’s message warned of and promised much to Israel, and as all of scripture is God-inspired, He speaks much to us as well. We may not be entering a new land here on earth as conquerors but we are looking for a country that is ours by promise and purchase of God in exactly the same way. We must be strong and courageous. We must be faithful and obedient, and we, too, must heed God’s warnings in order to inherit His promises.
“Remember how the Lord your God led you through the wilderness for these forty years, humbling you and testing you to prove your character, and to find out whether or not you would obey his commands.
Yes, he humbled you by letting you go hungry and then feeding you with manna, a food previously unknown to you and your ancestors.
He did it to teach you that people do not live by bread alone; rather, we live by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. (✝️Matthew 4:4)
For all these forty years your clothes didn’t wear out, and your feet didn’t blister or swell.
Think about it: Just as a parent disciplines a child, the Lord your God disciplines you for your own good.
So obey the commands of the Lord your God by walking in his ways and fearing him.”
Deuteronomy 8:2-6 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/deu.8.2-6.NLT
AND…
“When you have eaten your fill, be sure to praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you.
But that is the time to be careful!
Beware that in your plenty you do not forget the Lord your God and disobey his commands, regulations, and decrees that I am giving you today.
For when you have become full and prosperous and have built fine homes to live in, and when your flocks and herds have become very large and your silver and gold have multiplied along with everything else, be careful!
Do not become proud at that time and forget the Lord your God, who rescued you from slavery in the land of Egypt.
He did all this so you would never say to yourself, ‘I have achieved this wealth with my own strength and energy.’
Remember the Lord your God.
He is the one who gives you power to be successful, in order to fulfill the covenant he confirmed to your ancestors with an oath.”
Deuteronomy 8:10-14, 17-18 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/deu.8.10-18.NLT
“Our temptations, like Israel’s vary with our circumstances: faithless fear in one circumstance, arrogant pride in another. Only the closest walk with God affords us the self-criticism that abominates both.”
Read the Bible: Deuteronomy 9, Psalms 92-93, Isaiah 37, Revelation 7
““Listen, O Israel! Today you are about to cross the Jordan River to take over the land belonging to nations much greater and more powerful than you.
They live in cities with walls that reach to the sky! But recognize today that the Lord your God is the one who will cross over ahead of you like a devouring fire to destroy them.
He will subdue them so that you will quickly conquer them and drive them out, just as the Lord has promised.
After the Lord your God has done this for you, don’t say in your hearts, ‘The Lord has given us this land because we are such good people!’
No, it is because of the wickedness of the other nations that he is pushing them out of your way.
It is not because you are so good or have such integrity that you are about to occupy their land.
The Lord your God will drive these nations out ahead of you only because of their wickedness, and to fulfill the oath he swore to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
You must recognize that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land because you are good, for you are not—you are a stubborn people.
Remember and never forget how angry you made the Lord your God out in the wilderness.
From the day you left Egypt until now, you have been constantly rebelling against him.
And at Kadesh-barnea the Lord sent you out with this command: ‘Go up and take over the land I have given you.’
But you rebelled against the command of the Lord your God and refused to put your trust in him or obey him.
Yes, you have been rebelling against the Lord as long as I have known you.
That is why I threw myself down before the Lord for forty days and nights—for the Lord said he would destroy you.
I prayed to the Lord and said, ‘O Sovereign Lord, do not destroy them. They are your own people. They are your special possession, whom you redeemed from Egypt by your mighty power and your strong hand.
Please overlook the stubbornness and the awful sin of these people, and remember instead your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”
Deuteronomy 9:1, 3-7, 23-27 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/deu.9.1-27.NLT
“My children, come. Listen to me. I will teach you to have respect for the Lord.
Do you love life and want to see many good days? Then keep your tongues from speaking evil. Keep your lips from telling lies.
Turn away from evil, and do good.
Look for peace, and go after it.”
Psalm 34:11-14 NIRV
https://bible.com/bible/110/psa.34.11-14.NIRV
“You find God’s favor by deciding to please God even when you endure hardships because of unjust suffering.
For what merit is it to endure mistreatment for wrongdoing? Yet if you are mistreated when you do what is right, and you faithfully endure it, this is commendable before God.
In fact, you were called to live this way, because Christ also suffered in your place, leaving you his example for you to follow.
He never sinned and he never spoke deceitfully. When he was verbally abused, he did not return with an insult; when he suffered, he would not threaten retaliation.
Jesus faithfully entrusted himself into the hands of God, who judges righteously.
He himself carried our sins in his body on the cross so that we would be dead to sin and live for righteousness.
Our instant healing flowed from his wounding.
You were like sheep that continually wandered away, but now you have returned to the true Shepherd of your lives—the kind Guardian who lovingly watches over your souls.”
1 Peter 2:19-25 TPT
https://bible.com/bible/1849/1pe.2.19-25.TPT
“This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says:
“Only in returning to me and resting in me will you be saved.
In quietness and confidence is your strength. But you would have none of it.
So the Lord must wait for you to come to him so he can show you his love and compassion.
For the Lord is a faithful God.
Blessed are those who wait for his help.”
Isaiah 30:15, 18 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/isa.30.18.NLT
Ready or not, here I come.
Amen! Come, Lord Jesus!
(II Peter 3:10, Revelation 22:20)
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