Can You Keep a Secret?
Bringing our secrets into the light helps us find freedom
Secrets. We all have them. We hold on to them tightly in hopes that no one will ever know the truth about us, but these secrets rarely remain isolated in our hearts. They infect our lives like a cancer that eats us up on the inside while we look whole and healthy on the outside.
I have begun a journey to healing from a secret that I have held inside of me for the past 27 years. As I have taken the first steps on this journey, I am learning that no matter how far we have run from the hurt and shame behind us, it will continue to find us over and over again if we keep ignoring the open wound while it festers.
I didn’t think that I needed to go on this journey toward healing in the first place. I thought that I had already found healing and I could use my past experience to help others. When I began to share my healing story, what I found instead was that I still had baggage from all those years ago. I had left those bags zipped up tight and opening them would require me to travel backwards, back toward the shame, the pain, and the secret that I had held so closely for so many years. Was this even worth it? Who could I help in this state anyway?
When we look back at the story of David and Bathsheba in 2 Samuel 11:1-27 we see an example of how secrets can deeply impact not only our own lives, but the lives of others around us and in generations to come. David was willing to go to great lengths to keep the truth hidden. He even went so far as to cause the death of Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah, an honorable man. The lives of David, Bathsheba, and all of their families were impacted because David had a secret.
When David was confronted with the truth about his cover-up, He wrote these powerful words of prayer to the Lord:
Surely you desire truth in the inner parts; you teach me wisdom in the inmost place. (Psalm 51:6 NIV84)
When we suppress the truth and think that we can hide from it, we give control to the enemy. The enemy of our souls can then use our hidden shame to destroy our physical, emotional, and spiritual health as we go to great lengths, like David, to keep our secrets buried deep inside.
As I have been walking this journey toward healing with 2 trusted sisters in Christ, I have felt burdens being lifted through the simple act of speaking the truth out loud. Numbing ourselves by stuffing our emotions and keeping quiet hardens our hearts. Speaking the truth sets us free!
Opening doors that were closed long ago is a painful, but necessary part of healing, but God is waiting on the other side of those doors with open arms. He already knows our secret shame and is just waiting on us to open our hearts enough to share our sorrow with Him.
Secrets live in the darkness, but the light is revealed in truth. In Psalm 18, David writes:
You, O Lord, keep my lamp burning; my God turns my darkness into light. (Psalm 18:28 NIV84)
God wants us to live in the light, sisters. Keeping our secrets shrouded in darkness stops us from experiencing the true freedom that Christ offers us on the other side of our shame.
Reflection
Do you have a secret that has been burdening your soul? Have you confessed this secret to a trusted sister in Christ?
In what ways have you experienced the consequences of someone else’s secret?
How do you think you would feel if you didn’t keep any secrets?
Goals
Name three people in your life that you can trust with your secrets. If you don’t have three people that you can trust, ask the Lord to bring these kinds of friends into your life.
Surely you desire truth in the inner parts; you teach me wisdom in the inmost place. (Psalm 51:6 NIV84)
You, O Lord, keep my lamp burning; my God turns my darkness into light.
(Psalm 18:28 NIV84)
Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. (John 8:32 NIV84)
It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. (Galatians 5:1 NIV84)