Shhh… It’s a Secret !!!

Do you have secrets? Remember the time you bunked classes and went for a movie with your friends? Shhh!!! it is still a secret!!! We all have several secrets that we either keep to ourselves or we share with our most trusted friends.

Even in different walks of life, we see people holding on to different types of secrets. Governments and political leadership have their secret strategies, each country has its own secret defense operations, FBI has their secret missions, restaurants keep their secret recipes, businesses keep their trade secrets and so on.

What does the bible tell us about secrets? Does God have secrets?

Let us open the treasure book and find clues.

The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.

Deuteronomy 29:29

Surely the Lord God does nothing,
Unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets.

Amos 3:7

For the perverse person is an abomination to the Lord, But His secret counsel is with the upright.

Proverbs 3:32

God has secrets too. However, His secret counsel is only with the upright. Similar to how we share our little secrets with our most trusted friends, He too shares His secrets with His trusted friends – the upright. The floods during the time of Noah is an example. Noah was upright before God and He revealed the plans of flood only to Noah. We see another example in Genesis 18. God and His angels after visiting Abraham were leaving to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. Even though it remained a secret to other people, He chose to share with Abraham what He was about to do. Abraham was called “Friend of God” and God revealed His secret mission to His friend, Abraham. Throughout the ages we see that, without revealing His secrets to His friends, God has not done anything in the world. God remains the same yesterday, today and forever.

The mysteries of the kingdom of heaven were kept a secret from the foundation of the world as written in Matthew 13:35. Jesus, while on earth, spoke about these mysteries using parables and those parables were not understood by everyone. Jesus explained them to His friends – the disciples, later on when they were alone. Even today, these things are not understood by all people in the world. They are only revealed to His friends – the ones who does His commands and walks in His ways. To others, it still remains a secret.

God has secrets and He reveals it to the upright – His friends.

“Can anyone hide himself in secret places,
So I shall not see him?” says the Lord;
“Do I not fill heaven and earth?” says the Lord.

Jeremiah 23:24

Would not God search this out? For He knows the secrets of the heart.

Psalm 44:21

And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.

Hebrews 4:13

God is omniscient, meaning He is all knowledgeable. He knows everything and nothing is hidden from Him. No creature can hide from His sight. He also knows the secrets hidden in people’s hearts. He is a discerner of thoughts and knows the very intend behind those thoughts. Every thing is wide open before Him. All secretive plans that people make to hurt, to ambush or to destroy one another is all open before Him. Even your secret desires and ambitions whether good or bad is wide open before God. So no matter how deep you bury your secrets, or how efficiently you hide it, those secrets are naked and open to His eyes. Simply put, God knows all our secrets. Ugly or bad, He knows it all – even the shameful things which are done in the dark. So beware, next time you make an ugly secretive plan in your heart, God knows exactly what you are planning. You cannot hide your secrets from God.

No secret is deep enough to be hidden from God – He knows it all.

But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, that your charitable deed may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly.

Matthew 6:3-4

But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. 

Matthew 6:6

But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.

Matthew 6:17-18

There are certain things that God expects us to do in secret. As we already established, God knows all our secrets. So God expects us to do those things in secret so that it stays only between us and Him. Our prayers, our fast and our charitable / good deeds should be done in secret. These should be affairs between only us & God, and not public to get praises from people.

Our prayer life and fasting should not be limited to corporate prayers and fasts that we do at Church meetings only. In such cases, the only intention is to show others that you are upright. Pray when you are alone with God and fast without making it public. Similarly, when we do good deeds, it should not be for being recognized or praised or for fame and publicity. The good deeds that we do should be done in secret where God is our only audience. All our deeds should be focused on pleasing God and not pleasing people. God who sees these in secret will reward us openly. So be vigilant, so that we are not cheated by our own selfish desires and ambitions. Remember, our heart’s desires are wide open before Him and He knows the exact intentions behind each action. So do these in secret with the right intentions and rise up to His expectations.

Our prayers, our fasts and our good deeds should be done in secret – to be seen only by God. Our Father who sees in secret will reward us in the open.

Treasures uncovered

Prayer:

Father, we thank you for revealing your secrets to the upright. Help us to always remember that our secrets are wide open before you and that we cannot hide anything from you. Help us to concentrate on pleasing you and secretly carry out our good deeds. We love you. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

---