We live in a world where hiding is pretty easy. We hide our real self behind the ‘instagram you’, the image we project to the world. Most people have no one to whom the are an open book. Even the thought of someone else knowing every shadowy secret space we possess is scary. We all have things we don’t want others to know.
But holding those secrets uses energy, working capital. And I don’t know about you, but I only have so much working capital in my life. My days are numbered. (And so are yours!) If I were to put this in computing terms, we only have so much RAM, working space to calculate and think. I am experiencing the spinning wheel on my 10 year old MacBook Air. I have upgraded memory and storage over the years, but its days are numbered. The processor just can’t keep up with the demands I am making on it every day.
Living with secrets uses up your personal working capital, your personal RAM and storage, your personal processor functioning. The more secrets, the less you are able to function fully in this world.
Psalm 32 has an ancient solution for this problem of secrets. My summary follows.
v1-2 Blessing happens when forgiveness happens
v3-4 Consequences of not confessing, hiding sin
v5 What confession looks like
Acknowledge sin to Him - name it
Stop covering it
Speak truth about your sin to the LORD
The LORD forgives
v6-7 Encouraged to seek the LORD in this way and find safety and protection
v8 Enter the LORD’s school
v9 Encouragement to submit to His instructional training
v10 Incentives to trust
v11 Rejoice!
The solution for the secret’s weight in our life starts in verse 5. We must be willing to be honest with those moral failures, those places and spaces in our lives that fall short of the intended freedom to which we were created. Remember the Garden! Full provision and the presence of the LORD right in their back yard. God and man together. The Creator of the Universe in close proximity to His creation, His image-bearers, His mini-reflections of His glory.
And if we read the last pages of the Bible we read that this first state is the last state. There is a new Garden to be established with humans again in close proximity to God and fully reflecting His glory.
But we are to be that image-bearer right now. But our secrets cloud both what we can see about the LORD’s presence in the world and in our lives, and cloud what others see of the LORD in us. And Psalm 32v5 give us a roadmap to cleaning up that obscuring cloud.
“Finally, I confessed all my sins to you
and stopped trying to hide my guilt.
I said to myself, “I will confess my rebellion to the LORD.”
And you forgave me! All my guilt is gone.” Psalm 32:5 (NLT)
Why don’t you do as I did this morning and get a clean slate. Talk to Him honestly about your sin. Forgiveness awaits! The weight can be lifted. The secrets don’t have to be carried.
The Arnold Journey 