You Can’t Hide Forever

You Can’t Hide Forever

Bible Blast: Read 2 Timothy 2:19-21

People may be pure in their own eyes, but the LORD examines their motives. Proverbs 16:2

Nadia let out a huge sigh as she looked down at the reading assignment sheet Ms. Malcolm had just handed her. Along with the assignment sheet, Ms. Malcolm gave the students a paper to write down what book they read and how many pages it had in it. Nadia took the papers home and kept them tucked away in her folder. Before she knew it, she was out of time and hadn’t actually done the reading.

The day the assignment was due, Nadia took the sheet out and wrote down the name of a big book she had never read but that would meet the three hundred–page requirement for an A. That’s right: Nadia lied. But she made herself feel better about it by saying, “Well, I do want to read that book someday, so it’s not like I’m really lying.”

A couple of days later, Nadia’s mom looked through her folder to find the school lunch menu, and she found the reading assignment paper Nadia had lied on. She knew her daughter had never read that book.

Nadia felt terrible because her sin “found her out.” Is that a phrase you’ve heard before? It’s in Numbers 32:23, and it means that your sin won’t remain hidden forever. Eventually, your sin will be revealed. Nadia thought if enough time passed, her lie would just “go away.” However, God needed her sin to be exposed so she could learn a lesson and make it right.

Nadia’s mom had her write an apology to Ms. Malcolm, explaining what she had done and asking forgiveness for cheating. Ms. Malcolm was blessed by Nadia’s apology, although, of course, she couldn’t let Nadia keep the A.

Sometimes our sin gets revealed through another person, and sometimes God does it by having his Holy Spirit make us feel really uncomfortable with what we’ve done. However it will be exposed in the end, hiding sin in the meantime won’t help you grow. You learn the true meaning of God’s healing and forgiveness when you confess your sin and turn away from sinning again.

Girl Gab: Have you ever been tempted to lie like Nadia did? Ask God to make truth number one in your life.