What's The Secret?

I've been asked a number of times to share the secret to "the secret place." How to have a passion for God's Presence. Many find it a struggle to spend time with the Lord and His word. The problem isn't lack of time, it's desire and that can be fixed. Let me explain!

When dating, people don't struggle with time spent with, they are consumed with desire to be together without anyone forcing them to ~ they are drawn like magnets to one another. They are so in love that there's a longing to being together and they count every minute they are apart. Their relationship is all important and everything else loses it's place, they find the time! Why? Because they are in love! If we are struggling to get into His Word and to spend that "quiet time" with the Lord that He longs for, it's our "LOVE relationship" that's hurting.

God never meant our time with Him to be difficult to do ~ sin got in the way! Adam and Eve enjoyed this love relationship with the Lord, right up until the time they sinned and then they ran and hid themselves from the Him. God's love, that they'd known, had not changed, their's did. He came seeking them, but they were no where to be found. He called out to them! Our sin breaks our relationship, it separates us from God. (Just as it would in a dating relationship.) A love relationship is broken by a lack of love; setting it right, brings the relationship back to oneness and unity. So, confession and forgiveness should be a part of our love relationship with the Lord. Hiding His truths in our hearts will help keep us from sinning against Him. He hasn't meant for His commands to be burdensome, but out of His love for us, has given them to set us free!

The secret, to "the secret place" is not to focus on the pressure of having to have a "quiet time." The secret to the secret place is to focus on "loving Him with all your heart mind and soul" ~ fall in love and no one can keep you away! It will be a consuming desire! You won't wake, feeling the dread, "I have to read my Bible."You will look forward to your time spent with the Lord, with expectation and it will go far too quickly, just like a couple dating and in love. Your struggled 20 minutes, will grow with longing, into an hour becoming far too short and the more time you spend with Him the more you'll desire. The more you seek Him, the more you will find Him and love Him, the more you will want Him. It was never meant to be a forced effort!

We love God because He first loved us (1 John 4:19), the more we recognize the depth of His love for us, the more we will fall in love with Him. So, ask God to show you the depth of His love for you, for you to be able to grasp that alone, will be life changing! The key isn't a forced relationship, it's falling in love with Him over and over again! Read His love letters to you, they can be found in His Word! He loves you so much, He longs for you to know Him, more intimately, to know the depth of His everlasting love for you!

Jeremiah 31:3 says,
“I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore, I have drawn you with loving kindness.”

1 John 4:9-10
"This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins."

There's a progression of things that happen when we really recognize the depth of God's love for us ~ not only will we fall, deeply, in love with the Lord, but we will be able to love others more completely. We will put Him first, above all else, because we love Him so much! The more time we spend with Him, the more we will see our sin. We will drop those things from our lives that hurt Him. Our sins will fall away, as we hide ourselves in His truths, because we love Him and desire to please Him. We will become less self centered, as we become more God centered. As we become more God centered, one with the Lord, we come to know the passions of His heart and they become ours. We will have a growing passion for others to know Him too. What happens in worship, doesn't stay in worship, the radiance of His love will go with us. We will be fruitful, because God in us, will be seen by others and they will see our love for Him. We will live with new purpose, confidence, security, peace, love and true joy ~ all that those around us long for! We will have an impact on the lives of others in big ways, with little effort, because our life is being transformed each and every new day by the "Living God" and they will see it. Because we are abiding in His love and in His truths, we will be ready to give an answer for the hope we have in Christ. We will desire to do His will, above our own. Our dreams and wants, will become secondary and we will want to be a part of what He is doing, His plans and purposes. We will come to know His voice and He will show us His will and we will become more confident in walking in it. He leads one day at a time and one step at a time, we will learn to trust that and be able to not have to be so "in control." We will find our security and our peace in Him, and be able to know His rest and much more!

A passion for God's Presence comes with "loving Him with all your heart, mind, soul and strength."

Psalm 42:1
"As the deer pants for the streams of water, so my soul pants for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God."

The secret to the secret place is falling in love! We will abide because we are in love! And we fall in love when we realize the depth of His love for us!

Psalm 91:1
"He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty." ASV

Discover the secret to the secret place and you will abide there, you will long to be with Him, you will run into the Father's arms each morning with longing and great expectation! Why? Because He loves you! Read His love letters, my friend, ask Him to give you a knew perspective ~ to show you the depth of His love! This is the problem, we don't realize how much He loves us or that He really can be known so intimately! I'm praying for you! Keep seeking!

Those Things Only God Can Do!

The sun is setting on another day in the Tetons, God's blessings continue to flow and I'm so grateful for all He's done for me, the seen and the unseen! I'm still in the process of selling the vehicles (2 down and 1 to go) and still preparing for a possible move; seeking His will and His timing, as I move forward day by day, looking to Him for guidance in each step. Ministry is still written on the tablet of my heart and I'm looking to Him for instructions as how I might join Him in His work, but still feeling bogged down, at times, with the temporal things, the estate stuff.

God provided a buyer last week for Jim's Convertible PT Cruiser and blessed my socks off when God gave me $1000 more than I thought I'd get, being in area with a cooler climate. God prepared a man's heart, he knew what He was doing. He said, "I don't take advantage of widows." God, also, provided a buyer for my ATV last night, which I am praising the Lord for! I realized after they left that there seemed to be $200 more, tucked in, than we had settled on for the cost. I called, immediately, to tell them about the mistake, but I was told, "No, Sheryl, that's separate, that's for you." God never ceases to amaze me! He continues to provide for me just as He promised, in "unimaginable ways!" I am in awe of Him!

I thought God had a buyer for Jim's ATV, as well, last night. A man looked at it on Thursday and called me on Friday to say he wanted it and could we finalize it on Monday. But he called last night at 6:00, just at the time we were suppose to finalize the deal, to say that he decided he needed something smaller to fit his business trailer. God has taken care of every detail, He's left nothing out; this is a purposed delay, He will provide, in His timing, for this need too! (Timing is everything!)

Though, I'm looking forward to moving beyond the focus of what to do with all these temporal things, my greatest joy this week was seeing God at work in someone that I've grown to care, deeply, about and been praying for. We can know when someone is being inquisitive about spiritual things, that God is at work, drawing them! It was such a joy, to drop everything and to be available to answer the questions God was working in her heart. Oh, how it makes my heart soar, to watch Him opening someone's spiritual eyes and giving them understanding! God has provided the opportunities, twice this week, for us to spend an hour together at a time and another for 30 minutes, just to talk about spiritual things. Those questions about how we come to God on His terms and the difference between Christianity and religion thrill my heart! You know God is at work when you hear, "This was a great conversation! I'm learning alot I didn't know or understand. I went to church, as a child, but I must not have been listening."Wow! That's something only God can do!

1 Corinthians 2:14 says,
"But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised."

Only God can draw a man or a woman to Himself! He alone gives understanding of His truths and the insight to recognize our sin and need for a Savior! This was something He was already doing, nothing I did or could do, but oh, what a joy to be able to join Him and to share the answer to those questions from His Word. I have no power to change a heart or to save a soul; to give understanding or to transform a life, but when God sets out to do this, He completes it! I'm so excited to see God's love at work in this one that doesn't even understand the depth of His love for her yet!

Where is God at work around you? Who's asking questions and seeking answers? When we see God at work, changing a heart, drawing them to Himself, that's our invitation to join Him! (What a blessing it is to watch Him transform a life and remember when it was me! When somebody recognized Him at work and gave of their time to answer my questions and to show me His love!)

May God bless you this week as you seek to join Him in what He's doing around you! These are opportunities for eternity, I don't know about you, but I don't want to be so busy with the temporal things, that I miss out on what really matters for eternity! Have a great 4th!

God Beckons Us To Come!

As we rise to meet the dawning of a new day, the most important thing we will do is to meet with the Lord and to align ourselves with Him, His truths and His will! We can only live this day once and it could be our last; we can waste it being caught up in ourselves or we can walk with Him in it and for His pleasure! This one thing is the most important thing we can choose to do! It won't bring regret, but a new confidence and peace.

God's heart cry to His people in the Old Testament as written Deuteronomy 6:4-5 beckons His people to Him:
"Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength."

Jesus repeated this in Mark 12:30 in the New Testament and called it the "greatest commandment." Do you love the Lord, your God with all your heart, soul and strength?

Everything in our Christian life rides on this relationship! This rises above all else! The quality of our relationship with Him opens the way to understanding and knowing His truths, His will and experiencing Him working in us and through us! This one act, this one focus will help us in bringing all else under His Lordship! It's a choice we will make daily, whether we want to or not! Whether consciously or unconsciously, we will choose, each day, whether we will put Him in first place!

John 15:5 says, "I am the Vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing."

Without God working in us we can't do anything to bear fruit for His Kingdom. He is the impact in our lives that impact will be seen by others.

Psalm 5:3 says,
"In the morning, O Lord, You hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait with expectation."

Psalm 33:20 says,
"We wait in hope for the Lord; He is our Help and our Shield."

Lamentations 3:22-25 says,
"Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. I say to myself, 'The Lord is my portion; therefore, I will wait for Him.' The Lord is good to those whose hope is in Him, to the one who seeks Him."

May God bless your day as You seek to put Him first, to meet with Him "in the cool of the day" and then walk with Him, continuing that fellowship and talking to Him through out the day. What great joy it brings Him when we put Him first, seeking to bring all else under His Lordship, making Him our one Stronghold.

"The Lord is the Stronghold of my life ~ of whom shall I be afraid?" Psalm 27:1b

"The LORD of hosts is with us; The God of Jacob is our stronghold. Selah." Psalm 46:7

He is Hiding Place, our place of Deliverance!


"You are my hiding place; You preserve me from trouble; You surround me with songs of deliverance. Selah." Psalm 32:7

Whatever, your day holds, He is enough! He is Your song of deliverance! You can sing in the shadow of His wings!