The Secret Place

THE SECRET PLACE

Following Jesus brings you into a community of other believers. These other believers become your spiritual family. You can pick your friends - but not your family. And following Jesus also brings into a secret place - where only you can go - it is the one place where you'll never be alone or lonely.

Matthew 6:6 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.

Strangley, you can actually only join the community of the faithful if your soul is alone with Christ in the Secret Place. Some people enter the community of believers and are ever lonely. They have not discovered the Secret Place.

The Secret Place is not a physical or even geographical place. It is a time. It is a condition of the mind and heart whereby the believer draws quietly into the presence of Christ. Most who have learned to do this have found that opening the Word of God with eyes of prayer actually opens their ears and their heart.

Psa. 27:8 You have said, "Seek my face."
My heart says to you,
"Your face, LORD, do I seek."

Have you found your Secret Place? Life in Christ can only be done in community - but you can only truly be in the community of the faithful if you are faithfully in the Secret Place.

Matthew 6:6 THE MESSAGE ¶ "Here's what I want you to do: Find a quiet, secluded place so you won't be tempted to role-play before God. Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you to God, and you will begin to sense his grace.

In the Secret Place we can be truly transparent. Our Father sees our secrets, hears our secret cries and often answers in secret. I have a Secret Place. It starts when I rise. I take my Bible (I now use my iPad). I go to a secluded place. I meet with God as I hear from Him through His Word. I appeal to Him for help, guidance, wisdom, courage, strength and clear hearing. I can't tell you the rest of what I talk with God about because it's a secret. And the beauty of meeting with God in the Secret Place is that I can go there anytime and stay for a moment, stay, or slip in and out when I need to be still enough to handle the busyness and pressure of a not-so-secret hectic world.

Psa. 34:8 ¶ Taste and see that the LORD is good.
Oh, the joys of those who trust in him!

Andrew