You Can't Hide It

I love to watch funny commercials. My favorite of all is a snickers commercial, where a bald-headed man tries to cover up his balding head with a toupee made of snickers. His fellow employees try to tell him they know he's bald and should stop wearing the snickers. Truly a funny commercial. And the thought came to me that we can't hide anything from God and we can't cover up our sin. God knows the selfish motives for the good deed we did today. The grudges we harbor against someone who hurt us or angered us are visible to God. He is aware of our indulgent fantasies, our "little white lies" and what goes on "behind closed doors," whether it's domestic violence, addictive behavior (which is notorious for secrets-that's a key clue a family is dealing with addiction - family secrets), hateful words or whatever. We can hide our true selves from our friends, our coworkers - and to some extent, even our families. But we can't hide anything from God. So when we pray, we may as well be bluntly honest - since God already knows anyway. It may be startling to think about how transparent our lives and hearts are to our Heavenly Father. But the flip side is that even though He knows every sin we have committed or ever will, He loved us enough to provide for our salvation through Christ - and He continues to love us. He wants us to repent (see 1 John 1:9), but He loves us unconditionally. That's not to say that he won't hold us accountable for our actions. There are conditions on blessings, but not on love for His children. (See the Prodigal Son for a parable that reflects God's love for his straying children.) Love that is conditional isn't true love. And as God's word says, He is love. Not the kind of "love" (a.k.a. lust or coveting) portrayed in some media presentations today. Rather, the 1 Corinthians 13 kind of love. Let's "get real" with God and ourselves.