Hide & Seek

I've been thinking a lot about the following verse: "For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God" (Colossians 3:3).

Here are a few questions that I'm being challenged by in my own life as a disciple of Jesus Christ:
+ Am I actively and progressively seeking the face of God?
+ Just how "dead" am I to sin and the world?
+ Do I genuinely desire for ALL of my life to be "hidden with Christ in God"?
+ Do I love God more today than I did yesterday?

I am constantly reminded, through both my own walk and through interaction with others, of the reality and power of sin. Sin...wickedness...rebellion against God...selfishness...pride...materialism...(and a hundred other horrible things) all remain a practical problem for the sincerest follower of Jesus Christ even though one's position has been secured in the family of God.

In one place, Paul could write, "Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God" (Romans 5:1-2). And then just one chapter later, he writes, "Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?" (6:1-2).

Lately I have been really meditating upon the glorious reality that Jesus is more than the righteous substitute for our sinfulness, He is the very source from which we live and seek the glory and pleasure of God. Instead of hiding from God and seeking the cares of the world, we are to hide ourselves in the person of Jesus Christ through humble, child-like faith and seek after the things of God.

"If you have been united with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God," Paul says in Colossians 3:1. A lot of our issues with sin will be dramatically cleared away if we will "hide-and-seek" in Christ.

Who/What are you seeking after these days?