Hide It or Handle It?

“For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open.” (Luke 8:17)

Once there was a child with a very messy room. The child’s mother instructed him to clean the room, to put all the dirty clothes in the laundry room, all the toys in the toy box, and to sweep the floor. Soon—too soon—the child came back and told the mother the room was clean.

The mother was surprised to find the room looking neat and in good order. But closer inspection revealed all the clothes, both clean and dirty, shoved under the bed. The toys were pushed in the corner of the closet. Suspecting the worst, the mother picked up the rug and found all the dirt had been swept under it.

You see, the child didn’t want to handle the mess in the room; he just wanted to hide it.

We can fall into a similar situation. Often, we don’t want to deal with the issues in our lives. We also don’t want others to know about them. So, we hide them. We conceal depression, loneliness, or pain behind a smile. We go to great lengths to keep our addictions, guilt, or even thoughts of suicide secret. Instead of handling our issues, we try to hide them.

We may think we’re hiding it well. We may even take pride in how well we hide our issues. But, friend, we can’t hide our issues from God. He already knows all our issues. Nothing is hidden from him, and all the things we think we’re hiding will eventually be brought out into the open.

God doesn’t want us to hide our issues. And he doesn’t want us to handle them alone. He already knows our issues, loves us anyway, and longs to step into our lives and heal the issues we so desperately try to hide.

Revelation 3:20 says, “Look! I have been standing at the door, and I am constantly knocking. If anyone hears me calling him and opens the door, I will come in and fellowship with him and him with me.” Jesus is ready and willing right now to enter into your situation. He’s knocking. But he waits for your invitation.

Inviting Jesus into your situation is the beginning of change. Do you really want to keep dealing with those issues in your life? Do you want to be free of the pain, released from the oppression, and healed of the hurt? Would you like to stop pretending you’re OK? The first step is to invite Jesus into your situation.

He’s knocking right now. Will you invite him in?

Jesus, thank you for continuously knocking at the door of my heart. I invite you into my situation right now. I’m tired of pretending I’m OK. I’m tired of hiding what I’m actually feeling in my heart and dealing with in my life. I’m ready for a change. I invite you to step into the middle of my mess and help me move toward healing and wholeness. In Jesus’s name, amen.