Quick Thought – Friday, June 25, 2021

Read

And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
Hebrews 4:13

Reflect

One of my favorite movies is the animated classic, “Shrek.” If you’re not familiar with it, it’s the tale of an ogre who goes in search of a kidnapped princess who is being held captive by a dragon. One of the surprises in the film is when we find out that Fiona has been under a curse since she was a child, and that the curse doomed her to transform into an ogress every night when the sun went down. She keeps this hidden from almost everyone until her wedding day, when the sun goes down and she turns into an ogre in front of the entire assembly.

It occurred to me recently that this is a lot like so many people who keep certain parts of their life hidden from everyone. In the movie, Fiona’s secret ended up not being a terrible thing, because her “true nature” was meant to be that of an ogre. But in our lives, so much of what we keep hidden is the sin that we don’t want anyone to know about. Worse yet, we too often try to even keep from admitting those things to God, perhaps because that means we will have to own them ourselves.

We are reminded at least 10 times in the Bible that nothing is ever truly hidden – least of all, from the God who knows everything. You might have a sin (or sins) that make you feel like an ogre down deep, but the best way to overcome those feelings is to confess our sins and allow God’s forgiveness to flow through us. Today’s verse, Hebrews 4:13, tells us that we will have to give an account of our actions to the Lord. But in verse 16, it encourages to “…with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

If you’re struggling with a sin that’s plaguing you, I encourage you to find someone you trust who you can confess to so that it will no longer remain hidden. But at the very least, I hope that you can be honest with the Lord, and that you will allow Him to prove his compassion, mercy and grace to you.

About Douglas Blaine

Capnpen is a writer who was a newspaper and magazine journalist in a previous life. A college journalism major, he now works as an English teacher, but gets his writing fix by blogging about a variety of topics, including politics, religion, movies and television. When he's not working or blogging, Capnpen spends time with his family, plays a little golf (badly) and loves to learn about virtually anything.

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