The Secret Things

Mankind wants to know all the answers to everything. We’re continually searching and exploring. Nothing wrong with that, even though we still know only a miniscule part of 1% of anything. But we aren’t satisfied. We want to know what will happen to us in the future. Will I be rich or poor, fall in love, have children, live to a ripe old age, become sick, die young, or lose my mental faculties? Will my wife, husband, or children become Christians? The list of questions is almost endless.

Some Christians believe that the Bible contains the answers to everything if you can just find the right verse. It may be a surprise when I tell you that it doesn’t. While it clearly addresses many things of science, it is not a science textbook. While it contains many principles about health and medicine, it is not a medical text. It has some key parts of history, but is not primarily a history book. However, the part of our life that the Bible plainly says it is sufficient for are the key aspects of our emotional and spiritual life.

God’s word tells us that we are to live by faith. That means accepting the limits of God’s revelation to us. We normally put the emphasis on what God has revealed, but it’s equally important to affirm what God has hidden. Let’s be honest and admit that there are, and will be, things in your life that make no sense to you and baffle you, confuse you and even frustrate you. You can’t work them out no matter how hard you try. They may even tempt you to despair.

That’s not where Moses goes. He doesn’t say, “The secret things are there to frustrate you and lead you to despair.” He says, “The secret things belong to the Lord our God.” We are to accept God knows what He’s doing and can be trusted. Faith lives with unanswered questions. If you can really get a firm grip on this truth, then it will settle you in the unsettling things of life. The Bible says that a day is coming when faith will be turned to sight (2 Corinthians 5:7). On that day we will know, even as we are known. But that day has yet to come, so we operate by faith in God who can be totally trusted to do what is right.

How do you navigate your way through a world where God has kept so much secret? With all that I don’t know, how can I live? God has kept so much hidden from you that you feel is important for you to know. But God says, “I’m not going to tell you.” Do we really, really want to know? Would they be any help to us to know them? Live with what God has kept secret, because it’s better for us not to know.

The Father isn’t asking us to do something He wasn’t prepared to ask of His Son, Jesus. In the garden of Gethsemane, before His arrest, Jesus cries out to His father, “Father if you are willing, let this cup pass from me, yet not my will but yours be done.” Hours later on the cross Jesus said, “My God, my God why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34). Jesus is staring into the mystery of what God has kept secret.

Some people have to have everything figured out before they will step into a situation where they feel like they might get their fingers burnt. They have to know every detail, have every area covered, to have the whole thing mapped out. But God doesn’t operate that way. First, you trust Him. Then, He will show Himself to you. God doesn’t give us all the details. But that’s part of us allowing Him to be God in our lives – allowing Him to take care of the details. Will you give God the right to hold the secret things from you? Will you follow Him wherever He leads you? Will you walk by the light that you have right now, and leave the future up to God?

Prayer: Dear Lord, thank You that I can trust You to hold the secret things from me. I admit that sometimes, perhaps many times, I am confused and I have allowed doubts and questions to invade my life and my peace. Right now I choose to put my trust in You and leave today and the future in Your care. I don’t need, or really want to know all the answers. I thank You that You do, and that’s enough for me. Amen.