CassieFor me, it’s a “going back”.
Maybe for you, it’s a “staying faithful there”. Or maybe it’s going there for the first time. Wherever you are in your journey with Jesus, the secret place is an important part of it, and Jesus makes that clear.
Today, I have a song on my heart about Going TO the secret place, Dwelling IN the secret place, and Living FROM the secret place. It is changing my life.
First, let’s look at what the Scriptures say about the secret place:
But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. MATT 6:6
He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. PSALM 91:1
You are a hiding place for me; you preserve me from trouble; you surround me with shouts of deliverance. PSALM 32:7
And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. MATTHEW 6:4
Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? declares the Lord. Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the Lord. JEREMIAH 23:24
Above are some examples of what we read about the secrecy of our faith. Prayer should happen in the “secret place”: secret from man, secret from the world…but never hidden from God. Hiding ourselves away from the eyes of man will ultimately reap the rewards of eternal joy and life in Jesus, of knowing Him deeper: He IS our reward.
So, first, we go TO the secret place.
We make time and space to go there: to our prayer closet, away from others, away from distractions. We know that that is our first line of defense against the enemy, so we start our morning that way, there with Jesus. We make it a priority. We know who we’re talking to, and we’re rejoicing in and with Him, so of course we make the time.
And, we dwell there. We marinate in His presence. We pray through Scripture, we worship King Jesus, we repent of our sins, we ask Him to work, and we yield to His sovereignty. We love His presence.
Finally, we live from there. We start to rejoice as our lives outside the secret place become the overflow of that fruitful time spent with King Jesus. When our affections are ordered properly, first toward Him, we live from and through that intimacy with Him.
And, of course, the secret place is, well, secret. Our relationship with Jesus isn’t for show; it’s not for our love interest or someone we’re trying to impress to see that we’re “so spiritual”; it’s just me and Jesus. It’s just pure love for Him. No one needs to see it; we put pride to death, vanity to death, dwell in the shelter of the Almighty.
The world tells us to share our spirituality on social media. It tells us to show off our prayer lives, our worship. Jesus rebukes these things.
Social media has made us crave attention for our spirituality to a height and depth that our world hasn’t before known, and I think many of us haven’t considered deeply enough the implications of this. Of course, it can be wonderful and extremely important and HELPFUL to write content about spirituality, prayer, the Christian walk. Many of these writings, books, etc. have impacted so many lives for the better. But what, truly, is the heart motive? That’s what we have to ask ourselves. Do we pray “in order to be seen by others?” Or are we truly called by the Lord to share what we’re sharing?
I pray that we would ask the Spirit of God to show us these things and to give us clean, pure hearts of worship for Him alone.
And may we go – RUN – to the secret place. May we DWELL IN the secret place. And may we LIVE FROM the secret place.
