The Futility of Running Away From God

Today’s Devotional – Wednesday January 6, 2021

Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?

Psalm 139:7 (NIV)

I must have been about four or five years-old when I accidentally dropped my mother’s Bible from a table. Torn pages covered the floor in a short while. My heart sunk. Alone in the house, I imagined all sorts of tricks to hide the mess. None seemed practical or effective.

I remembered mother had warned me, countless times, that God would punish those who went against His will. Having mutilated God’s book, I had no option but to flee from home, mother and God. I quietly slid out of the house and ran to hide in a trench near our house. I hoped that an angry God would never find me there.

It took a large search party and reassurance from the voice of my deeply-worried mother for me to emerge from the ditch, after several hours. I was lucky because mother spared me the rod. God appeared to agree with her because nothing unusual happened to me after the incident.

Later in life when I read Psalm 139, I realized my juvenile attempts to flee from God were unnecessary. It is impossible to escape God’s presence.  In this Psalm, David recounts the all-knowing, all-powerful and all-seeing nature of God. He observes that there is no hiding place for human beings from God.

The Spirit of God is everywhere, searching even the thoughts and motives of human beings. David marvels at how special man is to God. The Psalmist concludes by asking God to search his heart and cleanse him of all sin.

It would do us good to remember that we cannot hide from God. Sometimes we conceal our evil acts from human beings and feel safe. We commit sins in our minds but comfort ourselves that no one can read another’s mind. We forget that God is everywhere; that He discerns our innermost thoughts.

God is not limited in knowledge and vision like our children, husbands, wives, neighbors, church members and law enforcers. We must fear God, not human beings.

Is there a sin you are struggling with that needs to be confessed to God because He alone knows you did it? Do you struggle with impure thoughts? Take your burden to the Lord in prayer, right now.  

Action point

Go on your knees before God today and ask for His forgiveness for all your secret sins (1 John 2:9).

My Father in heaven, remind me that I can never hide from your presence. Convict me to confess my secret sins to you. Fill me with your Holy Spirit and give me power to reform. Amen