RESOURCES — SHORT ARTICLES

 

SHORT ARTICLES BY TOM ELSEROAD
	2020-07-20	Why Is God So Hidden
		Col 1:15  He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 1Ti 1:17  Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, to God who alone is wise, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. Some argue, If God exists, He would not be so hidden. When we think about God, that is what we do, we think about Him because we cannot see Him. We may sense His presence, or we pray to Him, and even believe we received a response from Him. God has chosen to reveal Himself in ways that require trust on our part. Unbelievers say God is hidden because He does not exist. If God is real, why does He hid Himself? So they take the hiddenness of God as evidence against God's existence. Is it possible God has a good reason why He remains “hidden”? Think as a parent who loves your children. When you are present your kids act differently than when you are away from them. While you are there you can have rules for your kids and they will mostly do what you ask them to do. It is when you leave the room that you wonder if they will do what you asked them to do. Is it possible that God stays “hidden” in order to achieve something in us that cannot be achieved in some other way? My kids would often show respect when they were young especially while I am standing there with them. But will they love me, respect me, and do what I ask when I am not there? What if God was always in everyone's presence. And everyone was overwhelmed with the evidence of God's presence.   You would have no reason to seek God. He's right there! God wants us to volunteer to love Him. He does not want to coerce love from us. God apparently wants love within the dimension of his hiddenness. There is a slang term “gold digger” who refers to someone who would marry someone only for their money. They did not love their rich or famous spouse. They just wanted what you could provide for them. You wonder with many rich people marriages when the two would marry if one of them was not rich or famous if they would marry. You could ask, “Does this person who just married me love me, or just love what I can offer?” Sometimes you want to hide who you are to see if that person really loves you for who you are without your fame or power. There is something similar with God. It is easy to love someone who constantly favors you. What if He remains “hidden” to demonstrate that your love for Him is genuine. This would be like the one with power might mask that power to make sure the person who says they love him, or her, really does. There is an aspect of God's hiddenness that is essential if we are to truly love God. There are those who say God is hidden, yet they are not looking for Him. How many are seeking God to begin with? God can look very hidden if you are not looking for Him. Even we as Christians can condition ourselves to explain things only as naturalistic. So if you pray for, say, healing, and you get healed, it is probably because you took the Doctor's medicine. So when good things happen do we attribute them to natural causes or is God the cause? So if you pray for something and it was delivered to you, is your first response, “Well, I was lucky”. You see God can appear to be “hidden” if we continue to attribute the actions of God to just random forces of nature. So if you are not seeking, do not be surprised it might feel like God is hiding. And if you attribute everything in your world to luck or chance, you might have missed the obvious signs God has given to you that He does exist. God may not be hidden as much as you are not looking. Pastor Tom Elseroad

 

An Evangelical Free Church of America

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