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“He (God) reveals deep and secret things;  He knows what is in the darkness, and light dwells with Him….there is a God in heaven who reveals secrets….Truly…God is the God of gods, the Lord of kings, and a Revealer of secrets,”   Daniel 2:22, 28, & 47

“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

“The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him, and He will show them His covenant,” Psalms 25:14

Who among us does not want to know the “secret” to life?  Such longing is built within us; for our Omniscient Lord who knows all things…has insights to give to us.  He wants to show us His covenant…His agreements and provisions.  These are things He has prepared for His people that fear Him.  He wants to entrust these important things to us so that we can pass them on to the next generation that we may all understand His desire for us to walk in His ways and thus represent Him before a world of people lost in darkness and sin.

Forty seven years ago in 1964, Eleanor Walton, a precious woman of God who taught me then as a teenage girl, gave me the Christian classic called “The Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life” written by Hannah Whitall Smith.  She simply inscribed:  “To Sandy,  From Mrs. Walton.  August 9, 1964, Matthew 7:7-8.”  This book was kept for 11 years before it was read by me. Though much change came in those years, I could never part with the book and always knew it had a significant message for me.  Upon reading it at age 28 as a young wife and mother,  my life changed and I could begin to understand and realize personally the “unsearchable riches of Christ” Paul wrote about in Ephesians 3 8.  He went on to write that the words the Lord had given to him were “to make all people see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ,” (verse 9)

Secret things are “hidden”.  They are things which are known by God but not know to us…yet He is a Revealer of secrets to those who fear Him….and to those who seek Him.  “Seek the Lord which He can be found. Call upon Him while He is near..for My thoughts are not you thoughts, nor are your ways My ways, says the Lord, for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts ,” Isaiah 55:6 & 8-9

“Ask and it shall be given to you, seek and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.  For every who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks, it will be opened,” Matthew 7:7-8.  Mrs. Walton knew the “secret”.  She was one who “knew Him” and “worshipped Him in spirit and in truth“. Philippians 3:10; John 4:24. And she knew that the only way to find the “secret” was to search for it… to seek Him.  She pointed me in the right direction…and then stood behind me in prayers of faith.  Miss Eleanor is in Heaven, now; but I owe her so very much and long to see her again in my own heavenly future…to give her thanks for passing the “secret” on to me.  She knew that if I would “seek”…I would “find” because of God’s promise.

I will write out the words of the “secret”; but for each individual, they will only remain “words” until a person “seeks Him with their whole heart” .  The true revelation of it will always allude the one who refuses to surrender with his/her entire heart to the Master and to His ways.  Search your heart to see if you have truly done that.  He cannot heal a broken or a self-centered heart…unless He has all the pieces. Do not hold on to any part…refusing to allow it to be touched by the Master.

The secret to a “happy Christian life” is…… to pivot on God and allow Jesus to have full authority in your life.  He must be at the center of your heart as Lord of your life rather than self being on the throne of your heart.   When that decision is made and implemented, the secret applied will produce a “happy” Christian life; and even though “sorrow and suffering and disappointments”  may be a part of living on this earth, the life lived will be a journey of joy in the Lord.

Nothing in my life has ever had more impact than seeking the Lord with my whole heart…and finding Him; for out from that has come a real and meaningful relationship and fellowship with Him, complete with the ability to “hear His Voice”…walking and talking with Him throughout life.  I cannot imagine trying to navigate through the past 36 years of life without Him, the Chief Shepherd; for He not only “knows” the way… He IS the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  I have “found” HIM…who my soul doth love!

One Sunday as I sat in church, I watched a young woman make her way to the altar. As she surrendered yet more of herself to Him, He wrapped His loving arms around her…she melted into those warm Arms…and she realized the wonder of being received by a Heavenly Father who changes not!  What security, what peace….what provision for those who truly…. surrender all!

There is no real true fellowship or life with Him…apart from this.  What are you holding on to apart from God?  Whatever or whoever it is…it is not worth the immense joy you will lose if you do not willingly let it go…and receive Him in its place!

 

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