–Clair Huffaker  (The Cowboy and the Cossack)

       “The Lord is in His holy temple, The Lord’s throne is in heaven; His eyes behold, His eyelids test the sons of men.”
                    –Psalm  11:4 (NKJV)
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When I was a kid one of my favorite games was “hide-n’-seek.”  If was one we most always placed when all the cousins were around.  It was especially fun at night.  Then when I became a parent I used to play it with my daughters.  When they were real small, even before toddler phase, they would hide their heads under a blanket or such and think I couldn’t see them.  They thought they really were hidden.
       Then the thought came to my mind as I was pondering what to write.  Hide-‘n’-seek is the oldest game on earth.  If you recall, it was in the cool of the day, when Adam and Eve went to hide for they heard the footsteps of the Lord.  “And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.” (Genesis 3:8, NKJV)  It seemed to Adam that the Lord could not find them, for His voice called out, “…Where are you?” (3:9).  Of course, the Lord knew all along where Adam and Eve were hiding…and He knew the reason why.  They were like my kids, thinking they were hidden, but really they were in plain sight to the Lord.
       I recall another game of “hide-‘n’-seek.  There came a command from the Lord to the prophet Jonah.  “But Jonah got up and went in the opposite direction in order to get away from the LORD.  He went down to the seacoast, to the port of Joppa, where he found a ship leaving for Tarshish.  He bought a ticket and went on board, hoping that by going away to the west he could escape [hide] from the LORD.” (Jonah 1:2-3, NLT, brackets mine).  Look at this–Jonah, a prophet of the Lord thought he could hide.  He thought he could escape the Lord’s attention and that he would not be found.  Oh, what foolishness.  But think–he was one of God’s prophets.  Did he purposely ignore the fact that God is omnipresent and omniscient?  Was he that deceived in his mind?  Very quickly we see that the Lord found him, and then the Lord played His own game of “hide-‘n’-seek.  Jonah was hidden in the belly of the large fish, away from everything and everyone for three days, until he cried out to the Lord.
       One more instance comes to my mind when men seek to play “hide-‘n’-seek” with the Lord.  “And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb!'”  (Revelation 6:15-16, NKJV)  In that terrible day to come, men will still try to hide from God.  Now they try to hide their deeds, but there will come a time that they will revert to idols and pray that they will hide them from God.  “Don’t let Him seek us.”
       Foolishness, but then man in his folly doesn’t understand that God sees his works, his heart.  In the days of Noah the hearts of men were evil, at Sodom God saw that the men were evil, and throughout recorded history there is the evil of man that God sees.  Read the Bible, read the prophets, how the people tried to do wickedness thinking they were hiding it from God.  Hide-‘n’-seek is a fun game for children, but to try to hide from the face of God is not only foolishness, but it is ridiculous to think that it could actually happen.  “The eyes of the Lord are in every place, Keeping watch on the evil and the good.” (Proverbs 15:3, NKJV)

                    –Elmer Kelton  (Six-Bits a Day)

       “There is a severe evil which I have seen under the sun:  riches kept for their owner to his hurt.”

                    –Ecclesiastes 5:13(NKJV)
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I was reading, then started pondering and contemplating this past weekend.  The titles of two songs were going through my mind and I started my pea-brain into delving deeper into the words.
       “Showers of blessing, Showers of blessing we need…” (Daniel W. Whittle).  I began wondering and pondering, do we need or want the showers of God’s blessing?  Yes, of course we need, we must have the blessings of His mercy.  They are renewed every morning and every morning we need to be showered with them, and throughout the day.  We need the showers of His grace, for we can do nothing in ourselves.  We need the showers of sanctification, of the growth of the fruit of the Spirit, of His great love.  But many things we want showered with are just wants.  I want this, shower me with the wealth of the world, I want that, shower me with entertainment, shower me with hyper-pogostick praise.  Shower me with pseudo-religion.  Shower me with blessings that I really do not need.  And, you know what, sometimes out of His great goodness, He does shower us with abundance.  However, remember, if the Lord gives us an abundance of something He expects us to use it properly and for the kingdom of God.
       I don’t want to belittle that great song.  It is a song of refreshing.  A song that means much to us right now in the midst of the horrendous heat wave and drought.  But we must sing, as we should all songs and hymns, with the right attitude and right motive.  
       The second song has the chorus”
                    Count your blessings,
                    Name them one by one;
                    Count your blessings,
                    See what God hath done;
                    Count your blessings,
                    Name them one by one;
                    Count your many blessings,
                    See what God hath done.
                             –Johnson Oatman, Jr.
We sing that song, we say we count our blessings, but do we really take the time to thank God for them?  Can we even begin to count all the blessings that the Lord has given us?  I started doing that on Saturday evening.  I became overwhelmed!  The blessings of God in our lives are like the stars in the sky.  They surmount what we can even begin to count.  Do it now, begin to not just count, but ponder the blessings that God has given you.
          Life, but physical and spiritual
          Salvation
          Hope of glory
          Fellowship with Him
          Fellowship with believers
          Assurance
          Health
          Promises from His Word
          Family
          Victories in the past
          Your heritage, both natural and physical
          Comfort
          and on and on and on and on and on…
Oh the truth of Oatman’s hymn,
                    When upon life’s billows you are tempest-tossed,
                    When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost,
                    Count your many blessings, name them one by one,
                    And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.

                    –Louis L’Amour  (Down the Long Hills)

       “Test all things; hold fast what is good.”

                    –1 Thessalonians 5:21 (NKJV)
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I am going to borrow a story from William Petersen for this portion of Psalm 103.  Perhaps you have had a smart-alek teacher in your past.  One of those who think they know it all.  I had one in seminary who proudly proclaimed that he “doesn’t test the obvious.”  I always wondered, “why not?” Are we as students not supposed to know the obvious?  Instead he would test the obscure, the captions under photos, things like that.
       So on with the story.  There was a second grade teacher handing out an arithmetic test to her students.  Upon receiving the test the students looked at it in wonder.  There were all types of x and y, plus many other symbols.  It was a college-level calculus test and they couldn’t understand the symbols much less solve the problems.  They were ready for two plus two, or maybe a perplexing, two plus three.  One student bravely raised his hand, “Miss, we can’t do these problems.”  To which she snapped.  “What’s wrong with you?  You’re supposed to be smart kids.  If you ever want a degree in math, you’ll have to solve problems like this.  Get busy!”
       Hold on.  These are second graders.  They need a teacher who understands their level.  Now, let’s look at the next portion of Psalm 103.

          8 — The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in mercy.
          9 — He will not always strive with us, nor will He keep His anger forever.
        10 — He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities.
        11 — For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward those who fear Him;
        12 — As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
        13 — As a father pities his children, so the LORD pities those who fear Him.
        14 — For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust.    (NKJV)

God is not overdemanding!  He does not insist on perfection, but He does expect to see growth–maturity.  He understands our weaknesses and He reacts as a loving Father.  He does not treat us as our sins deserve as He sent His Son to take care of that penalty for us.  “Infinite and vast is God’s eternal love for His own….  God knows our finite, human limitations and remembers that we are as fragile as dust.” (Steven Lawson)
       Let’s look back at what God, our Father has done for us (verses 1-14)   (Thanks to George Wood).
               1)  He forgives all our sins.  He forgives sins of omission and acts of commission.  “He frees us to start over after failure, cancels all indictments against you, and discharges all our debts.”
               2)  He heals all our diseases.  We must take the long view in regard to this–healing will come even if a person ultimately has to wait in glory.  Our definition of disease must be broadened to include any “deterioration which diminishes your well-being and wholeness.”  It can mean a bad attitude, an unforgiving spirit…  “In Jesus…He works to liberate us from these deformative and degenerative diseases so that on the inside our personality and disposition increasingly resemble that of Jesus.”
               3)  He redeems our life from the pit.  The pit represents the abyss from which you cannot escape.  “He reaches His long arm into the pitch-dark hole of depression or despair where you lie helpless and imprisoned, grabs you strongly, pulls you up, and sets your feet on solid ground. in the sunlight of His presence.”
               4)  He crowns your life with love and compassion.  God has good gifts for us, and His gifts are far better than those that the world has to offer.
               5)  He satisfies your desires with good things.  The horror of depression is its lack of hope.  “God is committed to bringing good into your life.”  There is no disappointment in Jesus.
               6)  He renews our life like the eagle’s.  
       He takes care of us.  He is our heavenly Father, and He will not only give us good gifts, He will give us better gifts.  He has removed our sins, our transgressions from us and we now live in the hope of His return.  He will not give us more than we can handle, nor will He allow temptation to overcome us.  If we sin, we have an advocate with the Father and we can go to Him with assurance.  Oh, what wonderful grace–oh, what a wonderful Father!

               “O how in this thy quire of souls I stand–
               Propt by thy hand–A heap of sand!
               With busy thoughts–like winds–would scatter quite,
               And put to flight / But for thy might;
               Thy hand alone doth tame
               Those blasts, and knit my frame.”
                           –Henry Vaughan

                    –Cliff Hudgins  (Grandpa’s Legacy)

       “Yes, I think it is right, as long as I am in this tent, to stir you up by reminding you.”

                    –2 Peter 1:13 (NKJV)
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They used to tell you to tie a string around your finger to remind yourself to do something.  The problem I have now is wondering why I have the string on my finger.  But it is important to remember.  There are times we have to remind ourselves over and over to do something.  It’s funny though, there are some things that I never had to remind myself of.  If I had a ball game, I never had to think of when it was, but then there are other occasions where I must constantly remind myself.
       Long ago, I got into the habit of writing daily reminders right after my devotions in the morning.  I set aside in my notes, to write at least ten things that I needed to get done that day.  It was a good, quick reminder of the plans for the day.  I never was one to prioritize, but if something didn’t get accomplished, it went on the list for the next day.  Maybe this is a good time to remind ourselves of priorities.  #1, Urgent and Important, #2 Urgent not Important, #3 Important not Urgent, #4 Busywork that still must be done, and #5 useless work.  If we are not careful, #3 can quickly upgrade to #1.  Get the picture?  Today, I still jot down my daily reminders in the morning.   Often there are not ten of them, but it is still a help.  At the close of the day, or the next morning I check to see what I accomplished.
       In our spiritual journey we should have reminders.  “Then beware, lest you forget the LORD who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage” (Deuteronomy 6:12, NKJV).  Sometimes it is good for us to remember what the Lord has done for us.  He took us out of the bondage of sin, out of the evil, world system, and made us a new creation in Him.  We do not want to become lackadaisical in our Christian walk, so we need to be reminded from whence we came.  Also, we are reminded that we are to work out our salvation, “Beware that you do not forget the LORD your God by not keeping His commandments, His judgments, and His statutes which I command you today” (Deuteronomy 8:11, NKJV).  As humans, sadly we have a tendency to forget so we need to be reminded.
       It is good that we are reminded of how God met with us in the past.  It is good that we are reminded of His blessings and deeds to us in days gone before.  A reminder is not like a day of remembrance such as Memorial Day, but a day in which you remind yourself of God’s goodness to you.  God even had to remind David that he was once a shepherd.  

               “Now therefore, thus shall you say to My servant David, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts:  “I took you from the sheepfold, from following the sheep, to be ruler over My people, over Israel.  And I have been with you wherever you have gone, and have cut off all your enemies from before you, and have made you a great name, like the name of the great men who are on the earth.”‘”
                         –2 Samuel 7:8-9 (NKJV)

We can get so caught up in doing the Lord’s work that we forget that it is He who guides us, sustains us, strengthens us, and saves us.  Even more so, it is easy to get caught up in careers, making money, or just surviving and we need to be reminded of the Lord’s faithfulness.
       In the many moods that we can have, in the myriad emotions that come our way throughout the day, or the season, we need to remind ourselves that we are children of God.  Go back, read 1 John, read Psalm 119, or other familiar and favorite portions of the Bible.  Remind yourself of your kinship with the heavenly Father.  Remind yourself, as Paul writes, “Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6, NKJV).  Remind yourself that God will be with you, will guide you, will protect you, and will complete the work He has started in you.  
       We need reminders.  We need to stop when we are in turmoil and remind ourselves that there was a time when the Lord took care of me in a similar circumstance, or go to the Bible and see where He helped others in the same situation you may find yourself in.  Look back at what the Lord has done for you and in your life, let those be reminders that He will do it again if need be.  Remind yourself of His great faithfulness, and that His mercies are new every morning.