That place in your mind that nobody else knows about – that’s where God knows you best.
Those things you think that you think nobody else would ever imagine – that’s the you – the REAL you – that God knows.
David wrote, “Lord, you know everything there is to know about me. You perceive every movement of my heart and soul, and you understand my every thought before it even enters my mind. You are so intimately aware of me, Lord. You read my heart like an open book and you know all the words I’m about to speak before I even start a sentence!” (Psalm 139:1-4, TPT)
Men make science fiction movies about that sort of thing – about AI computer programs that predict (and prosecute) criminal activity before it even happens, but God isn’t watching us in a threatening way like that. He is there more like an ever-present help desk than that glowering Gotcha in the sky.
But He does know us.
We don’t have to get all dressed up and prettied up to go someplace to meet God. People do that sort of thing and compete with each other to put their “best foot forward,” and in that context many times they sit in judgment on each other, even learning to read body language so as to determine what is going on in each others’ heads. In fact, it is that sort of judgment that we hope to avoid with our secret thoughts. But no man ever truly knows the minds of others – only God does.
It is that place where only God can see us as we really are that will be revealed ultimately as the determiner of whether or not we actually know God in a familial way … whether or not we should dwell with Him for eternity.
In that place, too, no matter how much we seek to avoid it, we are truly judged – not by God, but by what we are, do and think. God is first a God of justice, so sin’s penalty must be paid, but He is also a God of love and mercy: His Son Jesus’ sacrifice has already paid that penalty for those who confess His name and believe! Where do we thus believe? In our HEART (Romans 10:9) – that secret place where God really knows us!
It is what we think in our HEART (our secret place) that determines what we really are, Proverbs 23:7 tells us. And, Psalm 66:18 says, if we choose to keep any sin there, feeding it and keeping it alive, God cannot hear us. But if we don’t hide sin there, if we acknowledge its presence and confess it, He will clean it out and forgive us for it, restoring us to the place where He can hear us. (I John 1:9)
It’s easy to put on an outward show, to say things that will make everyone think we’re holy or cool, to go some place with a crowd of people that makes others think (and many there even fool themselves into believing) that “It Is Well” with our soul and God, but many who have done that often, Matthew 7 tells us, will one day get to the big reveal of their secret place, only to find that God never resided there. How it will hurt some to find out that the standard and form of judgment they exercised in their hearts towards others will now be turned and used on them!
And here’s the crazy thing: God is not hard to please. If we invested into forming a relationship with Him – hearing His voice through His Word and His prophets, talking to Him in prayer and praise, realizing through knowing and experience what it is to be His sons, not letting “little sins” take up residence and fester but “keeping short accounts with God” – what we invest instead into faking it, we would realize that relationship and our secret place would be transformed into “something beautiful, something good.”
So take a look right now. Into your secret place – the place of your thoughts, where your mind goes when nobody else is looking, where nobody can imagine you think or go. Is God there? Is He welcome there? Does He reign there? Or is He a stranger?
You can invite Him in right now, and He will come in and stay.
Then, when His residence in your secret place is sure, exercise your self-control choices to fertilize there only thoughts of things that are “authentic and real, honorable and admirable, beautiful and respectful, pure and holy, merciful and kind.” (Phil. 4:8, TPT)
P.S. We know that God has secret places, too, and that those who choose to live therefind all sorts of benefits: “When we live our lives within the shadow of God Most High, our secret hiding place, we will always be shielded from harm. How then could evil prevail against us or disease infect us? God sends angels with special orders to protect you wherever you go, defending you from all harm. If you walk into a trap, they’ll be there for you and keep you from stumbling. You’ll even walk unharmed among the fiercest powers of darkness, trampling every one of them beneath your feet! For here is what the Lord has spoken to me: ‘Because you have delighted in me as my great lover, I will greatly protect you. I will set you in a high place, safe and secure before my face. I will answer your cry for help every time you pray, and you will find and feel my presence even in your time of pressure and trouble. I will be your glorious hero and give you a feast. You will be satisfied with a full life and with all that I do for you. For you will enjoy the fullness of my salvation!’” (Psalm 91:9-16, TPT)
