Secret Things

1 Corinthians 4:1

So then, men ought to regard us as servants of Christ and those entrusted with the secret things of God.

Man’s wisdom is futile in the Lord’s eyes. If we find blessing in a relationship with God and if we rely on Jesus as our Savior and Lord, then we can stop competing with men over spiritual things. We are of Christ and that means we are to be faithful to God.

Trusting in our own wisdom moves us away from trusting God. Instead of trying to prove how wise and spiritually powerful we are, we should be about the work of servants. We are to prove ourselves faithful to God by acting out His love.

In our servant-hearted actions toward man, we carry the message of God’s love. Power comes from that love. If we want power, we must remember that we’ve been given secret things from God. Secrets are powerful things. The secret things of God are in His message of love to us. We can unlock secrets as we grow in our relationship with Him.

Being consistent and patient helps us grow beyond the immature relationship we once had with God. We can be known as servants of Christ and those entrusted with the secret things of God if we’ll continue seeking Him.

Hiding From God?

Jeremiah 23:24

“Can anyone hide in secret places so that I cannot see him?”

I was away from my computer last week. Did you know where I was? No, of course not. But God did.

God always knows where I am. I cannot run away from Him.

As a child, I was told not to run in church because it was God’s house. I wasn’t supposed to run in anyone’s house, especially not God’s house. But I knew God wasn't confined to the church. God was in the church and at the beach and on the football field. I knew God was everywhere.

He sees me when I’m at home or when I’m on vacation. If I go on a family vacation, we can camp in tents in the deep woods and still worship God together. We don’t have to find a church to worship in. We are members of God’s family, and He is with us. Always.

As God dots the earth with color this spring, remember Him. Remember that He can see in the dark, and there is no darkness that can cover Him. There is no secret that He doesn’t know.

Esther's Secret

Esther 2:20

But Esther had kept secret her family background and nationality just as Mordecai had told her to do, for she continued to follow Mordecai's instructions as she had done when he was bringing her up.

The month of December is difficult for me because that’s when we buy presents and hide them until Christmas day. I have to work to keep quiet about my kids’ presents. I can’t wait to give the gifts, so I try not to giggle about the way I think they’ll react when they open them. Over the years, I’ve learned to be patient. It’s hard, but I can keep a secret.

I admire the way Queen Esther could keep her secret before and after she became queen. She went through a year of preparation before she was chosen by the king. After she received her crown, she waited until the right moment before she said anything. That must’ve been hard.

She notified the king of an assassination plot and made him aware that Mordecai was the one who discovered it. But she didn’t reveal her secret.

Mordecai was her uncle, and they were Jews. But Mordecai taught Esther to wait until the time was right to tell the king of her heritage.

Because of an evil man named Haman, the king was persuaded to issue an order for the destruction of the Jews. Mordecai told Esther to go before the king and plead for mercy. He reminded her that she would be found out and executed along with all the other Jews if the order was carried out. She knew her crown wouldn’t save her, but God would.

She risked her life by appearing before the king, but he was glad to see her and didn’t mind the interruption. Instead of falling at the king’s feet and begging for mercy, Queen Esther invited Haman and the king to a banquet. That night, she invited him to a second banquet and promised to explain why she was doing this.

The king was outraged when she finally told him that Haman had convinced the king to order the deaths of all the Jews, including herself. A servant told the king that Haman had erected a gallows to put an end to Mordecai, who had been faithful to the king and had saved the king’s life by alerting him about the assassination plot. The king made sure Haman was hung on his own gallows.

Then Esther asked the king for mercy since the order to kill the Jews had already been issued. Mordecai was allowed to write a decree to cancel the first. The king gave his signet ring to him to use on the decree so it couldn’t be revoked.

Esther, because of her wisdom, saved her people by revealing her secret at the right time. The Jews promised to celebrate every year at the same time so they wouldn’t forget how they got relief from their enemies.

That’s worth keeping a secret for a little while.

Rahab's Secret

Joshua 2:14

"Our lives for your lives!" the men assured her. "If you don't tell what we are doing, we will treat you kindly and faithfully when the LORD gives us the land."

Joshua sent spies to check out the walled city of Jericho. They met Rahab who kept their secret. She helped them escape because she’d heard about their God. She asked them to promise that she and her family would be unharmed. At their instruction, she tied a scarlet cord in the window she helped them escape through. She and her family were saved because they could keep a secret.

When your best friend confides in you, do you keep the secret?

Most people will keep the secret entrusted to them based on their opinion of its value. If it’s a valuable secret and you value the friendship more, you’ll keep the secret. If you don’t value the friendship as much as the secret knowledge they gave, you’ll use the secret to benefit yourself and ruin a friendship in the process.

How you keep secrets tells people what kind of person you are. I can’t imagine enjoying a friendship with someone who gives away my secrets. I want to trust my friends. I also want my friends to trust me.

Trust is a two-way street.

I believe a good relationship with God has to have this two-way trust. Can God trust you to do what you tell him you’ll do? Do you trust God to do what he said he’d do?

People who are misinformed about what God said he’d do end up not trusting him because they trusted the second-hand information. Rahab trusted the spies and they trusted her because they were getting the information directly from the source. There wasn’t any confusion in the communication.

This is why each person needs to seek God on his own. There’s nothing better than hearing from God. That way it’s one-on-one and we don’t get misinformed by second-hand information. When a person develops a personal relationship with God, there’s a better chance that two-way trust will be developed.

Can God trust you enough to tell you a secret? Find out. Seek Him today.