ANNOUNCEMENT: The winners of my giveaway for two copies of my Bible study, From the Trash Pile to the Treasure Chest: Creating a Godly Legacy are…………….Karen Barrows and Lisa Shaw. Ladies, your personalized copies of the study will be in your hands in just a few days! I pray you are blessed. Thank you to all who entered and helped me spread the word about the study.
I will be offering a special on the books in December and January. Check back on December 1st for more info.
Psalm 91: 1(NIV) tells us that ‘He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.’ The King James uses the words ‘secret place’ in lieu of the word ‘shelter’. Though not typically a huge fan of old King James, I rather like the King James rendering of this particular phrase.
The idea of dwelling in the secret place of the Most High is very appealing to me in this season of my life. I have been on a bit of a blogging break over the past few months and I know some of you have done the same. Many bloggers, as well as some who communicate using other methods, have voiced a weariness of soul. I get that and I wonder why we are feeling weary.
To be very transparent with you, I’m not sure that I would even know what to do once I got there. Oh, don’t get me wrong. I pray. I study the Word. I go to church. I lead a Sunday school class and ladies’ Bible study group. Flitter, I just went to Israel….the very place where Jesus lived and walked. However, I don’t think the secret place is as much about a place as it is about a posture.
Allow me to share with you what I imagine that secret place to look like.
First and foremost, it involves quieting my mind and my soul; tuning out the distractions of the world and focusing only on Jesus for more than a pair of minutes. STOP RIGHT THERE! How hard is that?!? For me, it is grueling. Just when I gear myself up to spend uninterrupted time with the Lord, the phone rings or the doorbell chimes or the cat throws up. The secret place is one place that Satan does NOT want us to go to and he will do whatever he can to keep us from it.
In addition to quieting my mind and soul, the secret place involves prayer….a conversation with my BFF, Jesus. It doesn’t have to be a formal, high-church sounding prayer, but rather it should be the cry of my heart. My conversation with the Lord should be a time where I pour out my heart to Him, because really, He already knows it anyway. He can handle whatever I talk to Him about…the good, the bad and the ugly. I may choose to pray aloud, silently or in a journal. There is no one correct way to talk to the Lord…the key is just to talk.
The third part of going to the secret place is listening to what the Lord has to tell me. There is a reason God gave me two ears and one mouth….I need to listen twice as much as I talk. God may speak to my heart in many ways in the secret place. He may speak through music, Scripture, teaching or any one of a zillion different ways. The key is to be quiet enough to hear Him.
One final aspect of being in the secret place with the Lord is praise. The Bible says that God inhabits the praises of His people and when we praise Him in the secret place, He will be very present.
Look at Psalm 91:1 to find out. We find rest and refreshment and strength. We are able to focus on Jesus rather than ourselves…on His strength, His protection, His sufficiency, His faithfulness. In that rest, we find renewal for our mind and soul.
It has been a very, very long time since I have spent any extended time in the secret place. My heart and soul are longing for it. How about you?
