I went for a walk this morning in a park that I haven’t been to for a long time. It’s not far away and it’s not a large park, but it has a pretty nice walking/jogging path through it. There are trees and lots of ground squirrels—and a full chorus of cheerful birds. I like being there and listening to the birds. For a moment, I focused my listening on their cheerful songs, and I loved it. Then I re-tuned my listening to hear the ever-present background hum of streets and highways—and jets, because when you live near a Naval Air Station, that’s what you get.

It was an interesting exercise, directing my listening to different sounds. When I listened to one, the other seemed to fade away. Then when I changed my focus, the other sound became predominant.

Kind of went along with my Bible study this morning. A group of friends and I are studying and praying our way through Psalm 119—a good way to approach this exceptionally long chapter! My thoughts settled on verse 114:

“You are my hiding place and my shield; I hope in Your Word.”

And as I thought about my hiding place, the phrase “hidden with Christ” came to mind, so I looked it up. The context is all about focus:

“Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.” (Colossians 3:2-4)

What seems so remarkable to me, is how quickly my mind can shift away from heaven inspired thinking to becoming engrossed in the “things that are on earth!” That is not to say that we must separate ourselves from engaging in life on earth; for me, it is more about allowing distractions like social media, television, news reports, or the myriad of other things that can chip away at my faith, to plant seeds of fear, anger, or anxiety in my heart—changing my focus from what brings life and peace to those things that generate fear, depression, judgmental attitudes, and anger (to name just a few).

The Bible tells us to “pray without ceasing,” implying that we should never stop praying (1 Thessalonians 5:17); however, that is not so easy to do. Prayer is about building a relationship with God; however, we are more likely to strike up conversations with people we share more commonality with than a holy God—which makes intimacy with Him difficult with our human, broken bent towards most things that are anything but holy.

But Jesus changed things for us by exchanging His righteousness for our unrighteousness through taking our sins to the cross and suffering the punishment we deserved. “For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21) And now, by God’s grace and the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, we have more in common with Him than we do with the people and the things of this world (though it is easy to forget that!).

We are in Him. And in the place where we are hidden—away from prying eyes—there is safety from the ones who seek to steal, kill, and destroy us. …and in our safe place, we are more inclined to talk to the One who is shielding us.

While we are shielded by the One in whom we hope, in all circumstances, we also “take up the shield of faith, with which [we] can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one…” (Ephesians 6:16).

So, a bit of a shift here, but trying to tie my thoughts together. If we are hidden in Christ, shielded by His power, how is it the enemy seems to get the drop on me way too many times than I can count? One time I heard a Bible teacher say in essence, when teaching about the armor of God, that satan studies his prey and knows us intimately, that he knows just what buttons to push to cause us the greatest harm. That concept doesn’t seem to be consistent with the covering, protecting presence of God in our lives, though.

What the enemy does have is the commonality of human nature in his battle play book. “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation He will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.” (1 Corinthians 10:13)

Sometimes, I think we give the enemy too much credit for our difficulties, as James wrote: “But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.” (James 1:14)

However, we have God’s Word and the Holy Spirit to strengthen, encourage, make us wise.

We have this promise Jesus made to His disciples, “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)

In Him, we have peace.

In the world, we have tribulation.

We are in Him, the One who has overcome the world. We are in our safe place in Him, though our presence in the world brings challenges and tribulation. Doesn’t change the fact our victory over the enemy is secured “…by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of [our] testimony.” (Revelation 12:11)

I appreciate how that verse in Revelation continues: “…for they loved not their lives even unto death.” To my way of thinking, that describes people, God’s people, who have set their minds on the things above, not the things on earth.

I know that I have a long way to go when it comes to realigning my focus, but like Paul, “…one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:13,14)