Rabbi Schneider - Stop Hiding!
Beloved, you know what Adam and Eve did when they sinned against God in the garden? They hid from Him. They ran from Him. And sometimes in our fallen human nature we do the same thing but listen to what the Psalmist says in Psalm 139. "Search me oh God and know my heart, try me and know my anxious thoughts". This is the opposite of running from God. The Psalmist put himself in a position where he is saying to the Lord, "Lord, I don't even know myself. Search me and know me and try me and let me know if there is any impure way within me". And he put himself in the Light of God's Presence and he said, "Lord, if there's something wrong in me search it out of me, show me what it is. Try me so that my ways can be made pure so that I can live in a purified atmosphere that I can walk in a pure lifestyle before You".
I wonder, are you and I doing that in our lives? We don't have to be afraid of God because God already knows everything about us. Now we should be afraid of God if we are sinning willfully. But I'm talking about if we are looking to the Lord for our salvation, if we are crying out to Him, He's merciful. We should not be afraid of something in our life that is going on because He already knows it and He wants to deliver us and save us and in order for that to happen, we need to allow Him to bring into the Light those things in our soul or in our thoughts that may be hiding in the darkness. Search me, the Psalmist said, and try me and let me know if there is something in me that is wrong. I don't know about you but sometimes I find that I have an attitude that's coming out of my heart at times and it's a bad attitude and I don't know where it's coming from.
So I say "Lord, I don't know what this is. I don't know what the root of this is, I don't know why I'm feeling anger. I don't know why I'm feeling this cynical attitude, I don't know where this jaded spirit is coming from but Father, I ask You to root it out of me, try me and test me and purify me and whatever is the root of this thing Father, I ask You to cleanse me of it through the blood of Jesus, through Your Word and through the Holy Spirit," and this is the type of attitude that God wants from all of us. Because only as we bring it into the Light, can we be cleansed and changed and transformed. Whatever comes into the Light, becomes Light. But beloved, don't be like a cockroach that runs from the Light and hides in the darkness. Have confidence in God's great and overwhelming love for you. Open up to Him, let Him change you, let Him try you and transform you by His Word through Yeshua's blood.