Secrets

Close personal friendships can be a wonderful blessing from the Lord. Being intimate with another person and being able to share deeply can be very special. However, we only share the secret thoughts of our hearts when we know we can trust the other person with them.

I remember an occasion when one of our small grandchildren came running to me in excitement and said: “We’ve got a present for you … and it’s a secret ... and it’s chocolates!!” She was not mature enough to know what a secret was, or to be trusted with one!

Today’s verse implies that God does trust us with secret things and that He wants to confide in us. What an amazing privilege this is! However, if we are to allow Him to confide in us, we have to give Him the opportunity to speak to us. Do we give Him enough time and space in our busy lives to whisper His secrets to us? When God appeared to Elijah in 1 Kings 19:11-12 it was not in the great wind, or in the earthquake, or in the fire, but in a gentle whisper or ‘still small voice’. Sometimes in our prayer times we can be so busy giving God our list of needs, and telling Him about our situation (as if He doesn’t already know!), that we miss the still small voice. Psalm 46:10 tells us to ‘Be still, and know that I am God’.

Who are the people in whom God wants to confide? Today’s verse in Psalm 25 tells us that it is those who fear him. Fearing the Lord does not mean that we have to hide from Him, quaking in terror. We need to hold in balance the fact that He is our Father and we are able to approach His throne with confidence, but at the same time having a right sense of reverence and awe at who He is, and a desire not to displease Him.

I had a wonderful relationship with my own father. I loved him and wanted to be with him as much as possible. He made everything interesting and fun for us as children. However, we also knew the things that would displease him, and the fact that there would be consequences if we were naughty! Because of this, and because of my love for him, I tried not to do anything that would displease him. This helps me to understand something of what it means to fear the Lord.

Psalm 34:11 says: ‘Come, my children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the LORD’. Let’s come to our Heavenly Father today as His children, ready to listen to Him, and let Him teach us what it means to fear Him. Let’s expect that He will want to confide in us as we listen to Him. What a privilege!