Don''t you love it when the Lord reminds you "of everything I have said to you?"   As Jesus told his disciples in John 14:26, so it is true for us,  "But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you." John 14:26 This week the Lord has been reminding me that my "hiding place" is in Him.  Even saying the word “hiding” will stir up the nay sayers, because as Christians we associate hiding with “hiding from God” but that is not the type of hiding I’m talking about.  I no longer have to hide in shame because of sin and then produce my own coping mechanisms to deal with the shame because my hiding place, my place of refuge, has been secured in Jesus.  As it says in Colossians3:3 "For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God."  Now instead of hiding from God as Adam and Eve did when they sinned, we are to run to God to hide in Christ.  King David proclaimed in Psalms 32:7:  “You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance." Selah Look back in Exodus 33 when God met with Moses at the Tent of Meeting and told Moses to lead His people out of Egypt:  "Then the LORD said, "There is a place near me where you may stand on a rock.  When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will take My hand away and you shall see My back, but My face shall not be seen." Isn’t it beautiful how God so perfectly planned everything in every picture He gave us of the coming Christ!  A cleft in the rock is a crevice.  It’s like a place that has been smitten. The cleft on this mountain on the summit of Mount Sinai, by the Arabians called Gibel el Mousa, or the mountain of Moses, is perceived a large chasm in the rock, said to be the cleft where Moses was placed by God, when the glory of the Lord passed before him.  There is our picture of hiding in Christ.  Our sins are covered by Him.  Jesus is the Rock.  He is the rock that was smitten, wounded and slain.  He is our hiding place.  He is our dwelling place. We can now proclaim as the psalmist: "For in the day of trouble he will keep me safe in his dwelling; he will hide me in the shelter of his tabernacle and set me high upon a rock."  Psalm 27:5 The LORD not only gave us a picture of hiding in Christ as our refuge and dwelling, but also "standing" on the rock.  The Lord is our strength.  Are you drawing your strength from Him or are you still relying on your own understanding to get you through the day?  If you are relying on your own understanding to get you through the day, then you are relying on yourself when crisis comes.  We will cry out to Him.  We all do that in a crisis.  But have you prepared yourself for crisis by learning to walk with Him, trusting Him with everyday issues in your life?  Oh, the years I spent thinking I was drawing on Him, only to find out when a crisis came that I was still depending on myself and I crumbled.   If we will draw from Him his strength to move forward in grace, then He truly becomes our “Rock”…the rock whereupon we can stand.  He becomes our sure foundation!  We build our fleshly foundation on shifting sand, when crisis come, the foundation will melt away.  But the Lord is our sure foundation, the Rock that cannot be moved.  So that we can proclaim as the psalmist did: "The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge. He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold." Psalm 18:2 Because He is our Rock we don’t have to be concerned about where He is leading; we just need to be faithful to follow His lead.  He will lead us where He wants us to go and He will provide the strength we need along the way.  This is where so many of us get tripped up.  We begin to follow and the situation starts to look a little scary and we back off or we start to “do.”  Isn’t it funny when fear begins to come into the picture…our flesh wants to “do” something.  We want to relieve the feeling of “fear” so we proceed to do what is in our own understanding instead of getting on our knees before Him and trusting and waiting on God.   Trust Him!  We forget that He already knows what lies ahead.  We’re the ones with the limited vision, but if we trust Him, He will unfold His beauty and our life will become a beautiful adventure. God also reveals to us in this picture that it is only through Christ that we have “the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.” 2 Cor. 4:6.  If you are “in Christ” you can see and witness His glory because God “has placed you in the cleft of the rock."   You died with Christ and your life is now “hidden with Christ in God.”  We are now positionally “in Christ.”  Without Christ, the knowledge of the glory of God would not be revealed to us.  But because of Christ, we see and witness God’s goodness and the love he lavished on us.  Jesus said to His disciples “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.”   John 14:9.   The Son loves to bring glory to the Father through revealing Him to us. And finally, God reveals to us in this picture that we see the works of God in hindsight.  As God told Moses “you shall see My back, but My face shall not be seen.”  So, we observe the works of God, as His backside.  His creation, His working in our lives…most everything is seen by us “after the fact."  However now that we are “in” Christ, we have the availability of seeing more glorious things because “Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance.” Matthew 13:12a.   Oh, the LORD is so beautiful.  All His ways are wonderful. Oh please, let this Word wash over you.  It is such good news for us!  My heart is encouraged and strengthened to know that I am "hidden" with Christ in God and that the LORD is also my Rock, my deliverer, my stronghold.  If we will really take hold of these truths and believe them and follow through with coming to Him daily and confessing our sin and allow Him the freedom to work in our lives...we will have true freedom in Christ. As our hiding place, he is our refuge from all the pain of sin from yesterday.  As our rock, our stronghold, He sanctifies us and is our hope for tomorrow.  All this He provides so that we can "rest" in Him today.  He cleanses our past.  He gives hope for the future.  He is our rest right now...in the present.  What are you waiting for?  Run to Him…run to Him like nothing else matters!  He is our refuge.  He is our rock.  He is our rest. Welcome to "To Live is Christ." If you are new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed or receive the updates directly in your email inbox. Thank you for visiting!