The Secret Place

I have always thought of the Secret Place as being some place hidden in the Lord.
Today I had a whole new perspective on where the secret place is. 
I was asked recently about my hopes and dreams - I was unable to give an answer and that has bothered me for the last several days. So I have been pondering. Why don't I have an answer and why does the question bother me.

I realized today as I was praying and pondering that there was a place in my heart that I have kept locked up and hidden. A place of secret dreams that I had chosen to let die because I came to realize that I could not have them and have my relationship with the Lord. My relationship with the Lord won out. Yet it was a great dream to let go of on my part and it was tangled up into much of my hopes and other dreams. So I locked them all away.  Today I realized that that hidden place in my own heart is the "Secret Place"where the Lord longs to meet me in a deep way.

So today I allowed the Lord into that secret place. He walked around the place with me with out any condemnation. He allowed me to grieve the loss and helped me to bury it in him.
He reminded me of the following are verses and they have been a comfort.
 
Matthew 19:29
And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.
John 12:24
I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.

I admit I still feel quite shaken by the experience - and my day is a bit off kilter.  Perhaps the Lord has his own secret places where he longs to take us. Today I invited him into a long hidden secret place in my own heart. I'm sorry I kept it from him so long and I am thankful that he did not treat it as a trivial thing even though it was not pure and was tainted by sin and quite twisted. Yet he acknowledged that it was a series of sacrifices that I made to follow him.

So it is done - I've destroyed the last tangible reminder of those dreams.
Lord, Thank you for coming into to my secret place, thank you for acknowledging the losses, allowing me to grieve and for burying the last remains in you. Cleanse me and make that place pure and holy.
Come meet me in that secret place and allow me to dream new dreams with you.


If you are reading this I challenge you to allow the Lord into your own secret places.