What is locked up in your Secret Room?  Who has the key for access?

“…the Lord…will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts…(2 Corinthians 4:5).

“Shall not God search this out? For he knoweth the secrets of the heart” (Psalm 44:21).

It is an interesting thing about human nature that we feel we can “hide” things from God, from Him who created us and hears the best-oiled hinges on the doors of our hiding places.  It’s as if we think, “If I don’t admit I have a secret room then God won’t know about it.”  Job said times are not hidden from the Almighty (Job 24:1).  Just because our best friend isn’t aware of our secret room doesn’t mean God doesn’t know.  He knows even while we are trying to hide it from ourselves.

Spring cleaning time.  We greet it with mixed feelings.  Now we can finally toss out all the clutter we have accumulated.  At the same time, we are reluctant to let go of some things we have had for a long time even though they are no longer needed and are just taking up space.  We have to pry our fingers off things that have outlived their usefulness.  As we sort through our toss-ables, we just can’t part with a few items, so back into storage they go only to have to be dealt with later.  Some “experts” say if you haven’t used it in the past year, you need to toss it out.

There are some items we have used today that need to go out to the spiritual trash can; like adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulation, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revelings, etc.  (Galatians 5:19:21).

Spiritual housecleaning is necessary and needs to be done often and thoroughly.  What might we be tempted to put back into storage?  What about anger?  “I need to keep this just long enough to deal with the injustice that was done to me.  As soon as I have dealt with it, I will toss it out, but for now I am going to just put it over here on the shelf.”  We can go down the list and find excuses to stash some of the “trashy” items we are hanging on to that seem to have legitimate excuses to be kept.  But it is trash and it is “stinking thinking.”  As long as it is hidden in our secret room, we have access to it and will use it when we think it is appropriate.

The things we hide—like resentment, lust, envy, gossip—in the corners of our good intentions are waiting for opportunities to emerge when an occasion for them arises.  We make a resolution to get rid of them when we find that they have only called attention to a greater need for good housekeeping, but then another incident arises that calls for their use and we recycle.  If we don’t dig out the clutter in hidden places, there will be another incident that will make use of it—and another, and another.  We need bright lights in our secret room so we won’t overlook anything lurking in the shadows that should be pulled out.  These are things we wouldn’t even put out in a yard sale!  Who would want them?  It would show what a messy housekeeper we have been.

No, don’t keep things in your secret room that you wouldn’t want God to know about.  Remember He created this secret chamber and knows every nook and cranny and all that is hiding there.  In fact, He created it for His use.  Jesus is the Light and will expose every particle of garbage in our room.  His light will show just how ugly all that clutter is.  A dim light (ours) will not display all the dust, cobwebs and dead bugs that are present in an untidy secret room.  If we don’t clean it out now, we will just have to deal with it later when it has further deteriorated our environment.  “Let there be light!” in our secret room!

King David had a secret room and hid adultery and murder in it.  But when God sent a prophet to him to let him know his sin was not a secret from God, David’s remorse was intense.  He wrote in Psalm 139:23-24, “Search me, O God, and know my heart: [Here is the key to my secret room, God.], try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”  David wanted his secret room to be swept clean by God’s cleansing power.

If we are keeping spiritual clutter in our secret room, we will find ourselves visiting it often to maintain it.  The works of the flesh are maintained by the flesh.  We activate them by frequent use.

God wants to clean out our secret room, not only to rid us of the works of the flesh, but to make room for the fruit of the spirit.  We can’t plead ignorance about what is in our secret room.  As long as we have the works of the flesh stored in there, we are the key keeper.  God would have to break our fingers to pry the key away from us when we have that kind of clutter in it.  Once we admit Him entrance, His light will illuminate all the filth that we have been hiding.  Of course, that is exactly what He wants.  He is waiting for us to turn the key over to Him, so He can help us do our housecleaning.  He won't force entrance.

Not only will He sweep out the garbage when we are willing to let go of it, He will disinfect it with His Precious Blood and make it pure and clean, ready to receive new storage items:  Love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance (Galatians 5:22-23).  And there is always room for more and more of these; the room will never be crowded.  The dim lighting will be over; God’s Light will put a glow on these wonderful items.  We won’t ever have to be ashamed or embarrassed if a friend unexpectedly wanders into the now not-so-secret room and sees our storage.

Now we have a place to put the “hidden things of God.”  “But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory” (1 Corinthians 2:7).  No longer hidden from us, we can put them in our secret room.  “But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God” (Corinthians 2:10).

The things that God has prepared for those of us who love him have been revealed by the Spirit.  Our natural eyes and ears can’t receive this glorious truth, but God has given us these treasures for our secret room by the Spirit.

Another benefit we can store is Revelation 2:17, “…To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna…” God will even beautify and change the décor of the room when we hand over the key to Him.  “But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price” (1 Peter 3:4).  The treasures for our renewed room will just keep expanding.  “Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not” (Jeremiah 33:3).

“And I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I, the Lord, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel” (Isaiah 45:3).

That verse is a good summation of why God wanted the key to our secret room—so he can clean it out, purify it and replace our storage.  He wants us to know who He is—the God of Israel!  The God of Israel is a covenant-making and covenant-keeping God who has given us all things through Christ Jesus and not withheld any good thing from us.

Now that our secret room is renewed and restocked, what do we do with the contents?  First, it is there that we may know Him Who filled it and totally trust Him to maintain it and to reflect Him in our lives.  Secondly, it is there so that we can share what we have been given with others and motivate them to clean out their secret rooms and give God the key.  He doesn’t comfort us to make us comfortable; he comforts us to be comforters.  Jesus told His disciples that what they had received freely, they were to dispense freely.  What God has given us in Christ is free to us, but it was not cheap!  It cost Jesus His all!  He wants our all (a clean secret room) so he can give us His all (to fill our secret room), and we will have abundance to share the contents with others. 

Let's give God the Key to our secret room.  It will be the best trade we will ever make!  As the song says, "Jesus, be Jesus in me!"

~~Delores~~