Have you ever played hide and seek with a toddler? It's quite amusing when they are learning how to play the game that rather than going to find a place to hide they just cover their faces with their hands and believe that because they can't see you that you can't see them!

On a more serious note it was a bit like that with Adam and Eve after they had eaten from the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.

At that moment their eyes were opened and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves. When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife heard the Lord God walking about in the garden. So they hid from the Lord God among the trees. Then the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?” He replied, “I heard You walking in the garden, so I hid. I was afraid because I was naked.” “Who told you that you were naked?” the Lord God asked. “Have you eaten from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat?”

Genesis 3:7-11 (New Living Translation)

Adam and Eve hid from God not because they were playing a game but because they felt shame because they were naked. They covered themselves with fig leaves and hid in the trees. However, God hadn't changed - their perception of themselves and God had. But God was still the same.

Have you ever noticed when you play hide and seek that the places to hide are usually dark? In a cupboard, behind a sofa, under the duvet, behind a curtain. Why? Because in those places we can't be seen. Our identity is covered.

In our lives we can find ourselves hiding from God because we don't want Him to see our identity. Just as Eve bought into the lie of the serpent we can often buy into the same lie and believe that we need to hide our shame from God. But if we look at verse 9 of this chapter we see that God goes looking for Adam and Eve. This was the first ever game of hide and seek. But you see it wasn't a game – no, far from it.

God missed them. He missed their company, He missed their friendship. We're often taught that we need to find God but if we took our hands down from covering our faces we would find that He is there! Right there waiting for us. Because He can see us even when we think we’re hiding!

Now I want to return to my earlier comment about hiding in the dark. Part of the enemy's tactic in getting us to hide is to keep us in darkness. Even if, like the toddler, we cover our face with our hands we find ourselves in darkness. It might not be completely black, but we are shrouded from the light. From His glory.

This is the life-giving message we heard Him share and it’s still ringing in our ears. We now repeat His words to you: God is pure light. You will never find even a trace of darkness in Him. If we claim that we share life with Him, but keep walking in the realm of darkness, we’re fooling ourselves and not living the truth. But if we keep living in the pure light that surrounds Him, we share unbroken fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, continually cleanses us from all sin.

1 John 1:5-7 (The Passion Translation)

So we see from this passage that God is light and in Him there is no darkness. It also says that if we claim to know Him yet still choose to live in darkness - hide, in a cupboard, behind a sofa, covering our face with our hands - we are fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. We are only doing ourselves a disservice! We are choosing to live in darkness when we could be bathed in His light and glory.

How do we do this? By choosing not to believe the lie of shame and choosing to believe what God says about us! By aligning our thoughts with His, by choosing to speak life over ourselves.

It is often the case that we have no problem with believing this for others - but do we really believe it for ourselves? I mean do I believe I am chosen, I am loved, I am blessed, I am anointed, I have His authority. If I believe I am who He says I am, why do I need to hide? When I come out of hiding and into the light it's not to expose me and cause me embarrassment or more shame, it's so I can grow!  Very little can grow and reach full potential in the dark. We need light to grow, develop and reach our full potential!

If you open a camera and expose the film to the light the photos on it are eradicated! You can no longer see what was on the film! Gone! The blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin and shame and we can again fellowship fully with Him and reach our full potential.

So are you going to agree with me and choose to believe who God says you are? Choose life? Choose blessing? Choose relationship with a loving Father? Jesus has done His part in our salvation now I need to live in it in its fullness and not just partially.

A thief has only one thing in mind - he wants to steal, slaughter, and destroy. But I have come to give you everything in abundance, more than you expect - life in its fullness until you overflow! I am the Good Shepherd who lays down My life as a sacrifice for the sheep.

John 10:10-11 (The Passion Translation)