Coming Out Of Hiding

Bible reading: Genesis 3:6 – 13

Step 4 - We made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the Lord. Lamentations 3:40

Principle 4 – Openly examine and confess my faults to myself, to God, and to someone I trust. (Steps 4 and 5)

“Happy are the pure in heart.”

Many of us have spent our lives in a state of hiding, ashamed of who we are inside. We may hide by living double lives, using our drug of choice to make us feel like someone else, or by self righteously setting ourselves above others. Step 4 involves uncovering the things we’ve been hiding, even from ourselves.

After Adam and Eve disobeyed God, “Suddenly they became aware of their nakedness, and were embarrassed. So the sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves around the hips… The Lord God called to Adam, ‘Why are you hiding?’ And Adam replied, ‘I heard you coming and didn’t want you to see me naked. So I hid’” (Genesis 3:7 – 10). Human beings have been covering up and hiding ever since!

Jesus consistently confronted the religious leaders for their hypocrisy. The word hypocrite describes a person who pretends to have virtues or qualities that he really doesn’t have. Onetime Jesus said to them, “Hypocrites! You are so careful to polish the outside of the, but the inside is filed with extortion and greed… First cleanse the inside of the cup and then the whole cup will be clean” (Matthew 23:25 – 26).

When the real person inside comes out of hiding, we’ll have to deal with some dirt! Making this inventory is a good way to “cleanse the inside”; and some of that cleansing may involve bathing our lives with tears. It is only by uncovering the hidden parts of ourselves that we’ll be able to change the outer person, including our addictive/compulsive behaviors.

Confessing our hidden parts brings healing and restoration. “You can’t heal a wound by saying it’s not there! Jeremiah 6:14-16Living Bible (TLB)

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