The Battle of Secrets vs. Intimacy

"And yet it is through this system of defense Christ walks with ease, never seeming to fear that He would do damage by rummaging around in the tender complexity of a persons identity. Instead, He goes nearly immediately to our greatest fears, our most injured spaces, and speaks to those places with AUTHORITY." -Donald Miller

Shhh.....
When people keep secrets from God. When we do not reveal to him our inner most beings. we are defining ourselves by those secrets. I have been listening to the Mill online (the college group from New Life Church) and they have been doing a series on secrets. We often define secrets as sin that we are in that we don't want any one to know about, usually pertaining to sexual sin. But secrets can also be about things that have happened to us in the past, people we hate, things that we have done in the past, and of course the places we struggle in during this present time. How then do we trust God and how do we walk out the process of freedom so that we may become more intimate with God? This requires a level of trust in God that is well, honestly quite terrifying. (*side note: as well as trusting in people God has placed in our lives the scripture says to confess one to another... He uses people to bring healing, but ultimately He is the one who truly heals). We have to trust that God is who His word says He is, and that we will not be rejected by Him due to things that we have allowed to trap us. We need to strip ourselves of shame,pride, guilt, self-loathing, unforegiveness...ect. We need to not believe the lie of the enemy that says "If they only knew what I was like..." God's word commands that we do not hide in the darkness but that we reveal all to Him who is Light, who is truth, who is Redemption, who is Love, who is God.
**Rom.6:11-23,Rom.8:1-17, 1 Cor.13:4-12, 1Cor 5:17-21, Gal 2:20-21, Gal 5:1, Eph.4:17-32, Eph.5:1-21, Eph.6:10-20, 1Thess 2:2-6, Titus 3:5-11

Life:
This week my co-leader to KENYA and I challenged our team our team to pursuit God like never before. To seek true intimacey with the father with the desire to know Him. To shift their perspectives off of the craziness of life, and to desire first only Him. So, in light of this team challenge I have spent most of this break alone in my room seeking after God. Psalms 139:23 says "Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way of the everlasting." As I read this scripture at the begining of the break I was all fired up saying "Yes Lord! remove what you do not find as sweet fragrence to you! Make what is in the dark become light!" and then He answered. And he began to dig. and I began to hurt. What happened to fluffy encounters with God? (that was sarcasm.) At first I pulled back, last year was a pain in the ... and I did not want to revisit the pain. I felt I had already learned what I needed to. But God kept bringing me back to those places of pain and confusion and frustration until I would talk it out with Him.you see, I have secrets from God. rather, I have secrets that I don't share with Him he already knows them...anyways.

Example you ask?
Adam and Eve. God knew when Adam and Eve tried to keep a secret from Him. They were defined by their secret sin. They ran from God when ever they felt him drawing near (take note that God continued to pursuit...His Love is greater**Rom.8:38-39!), only creating further distance, rather than that place of intimacy that occured when walking with their Father in the Garden. This was a moment of great tragedy. At that moment Adam and Eve forgot that God was good, they forgot their place as children of God, everything they did was to protect, their secret (even wearing clothes!) We need to remember that God is good. Of course, God as the loving father, sent His only Son to reconcile us to Him that we may once again walk in intimacy with Him.


So, Secrets versus Intimacy? There are no secrets in intimacy.