The Secret Place

This morning I had to go to a place that I have been avoiding. A place that brings me pain and healing, dread and relief, sorrow and joy. This morning I had to go to the secret place. The secret place is a place where I am alone before God. I love the secret place because going there results in much needed restoration for my weary soul. At the same time, I dread the secret place because it forces me to see the holiness of God and to feel the weight of sin in my heart.

To be honest, I knew this morning was coming. Last night I spent time doing research on Psalm 38, 39, and 40. During this time, the Lord began convicting my heart about the way I respond to sin in my life. Not that I had stopped confessing my sin, I had not. However, I had fallen into the trap of confessing my sin much like I read my grocery list.

As I read the words David penned in response to the sin in his life, I wondered how I had become so callous to sin in my walk with the Lord. The following verses brought this truth home to me. Psalm 38:4-8"My guilt has overwhelmed me like a burden too heavy to bear. My wounds fester and are loathsome because of my sinful folly. I am bowed down and brought very low; all day long I go about mourning. My back is filled with searing pain; there is no health in my body. I am feeble and utterly crushed; I groan in anguish of heart." Talk about the feeling of pain, dread, and sorrow, David's words flowed with the brokenness he experienced as a result of sin in his life. Today, I can relate. I too am broken over the haphazard approach to sin that I so easily display.

Praise the Lord that going to the secret place does not leave me with a feeling of dread! You see, at the very heart of the secret place resides great hope in knowing that God is greater than any sin that so easily entangles my life. Again, I offer David's words. Psalm 40: 1-3- "I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out o the slimy pit, out of the mud and more; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord." The song that God often puts in my mouth as a result of encountering Him in the secret place, is a song of praise to my God for His saving grace in my life. I am reminded that God has delivered me from a number of slimy pits and He will continue to deliver me. Today, my response to the truth is to get real about the pits that I am currently in and to surrender to the truth that the road leading to those pits was paved with sin. No doubt, I got into those slimy pits by compromising the holiness of God in my daily life. The path that leads out of the slimy pit is paved with righteousness. I live a right life before the Lord when I recognize His holiness and strive to live that holiness out in my life.

Today are you avoiding a much needed encounter with God in your secret place? If so, run my friend and find healing for your weary soul.

Humbled and Grateful!
Andrea @ TVM