Perhaps it is that there's a secret within a secret, or if you will, a secret passage to the secret room. And yet both in truth have been open secrets ever since Christ lived and died and rose again for us nearly two thousand years ago.
It must surely be that even Christians don't find these secrets to be acceptable answers to their quest for victory and holiness and godliness. They simply aren't to their liking. So thy reject them. Or they ignore them.
CHRIST PREEMINENT
The secret room is the goal of the Christian life: "that in all things He might have the preeminence" (Col. 1:18).
This is victory. This is holiness. This is godliness!
-"That in all things He might have the preeminence."
The old Westminster catechism asked: "What is the chief end of man?" And it answered: "To glorify God and enjoy Him forever."
The enjoyment part has been perfectly acceptable through all t he ages, if it could be on our terms; but as to glorifying God, that is another matter. You see, I can't seek that Christ be preeminent or God be glorified while wanting my own way.
WHO WILL IT BE?
I have a choice. It is my way or His. My will or His. My pleasure or His.
My enjoyment or His. My goals or His. My hopes or His. My thoughts or His.
My life or His. My honor or His. My praise or His. My glory of His.
It is dependence on Him or on myself. It is trust in Him or in myself. It is love for Him or for myself. It is I having the preeminence or God having the preeminence. It is God being glorified or I being glorified.
It is either "Not I but Christ" (Gal. 2:20) or Not Christ, but I.
And if I refuse to die that Christ might live in me in newness of life, there's no holiness, there's no godliness, there's no victory.
Oh, true, I might change some of my outward habits, but inside I'm the same self-centered person whose pride and selfishness hung Christ on the cross.
CROWNED OR CRUCIFIED?
You see when I crown myself lord of my life, I crucify Him. Only when I'm ready to let Him put me t o the cross, can I crown Him Lord of my life.
Who then will be crowned, Christ or I?
Who then will be crucified, I or Christ?
No wonder with such a question at its heart we prefer not to acknowledge the open secret of Christian victory. No wonder we prefer to pretend we don't know.
But what about the passage to the secret room, the secret surrounding the secret, the secret access to the secret room?
It is even more of an open secret.
It is secret prayer.
THE SECRET IS SECRET PRAYER
Now, just stop and think a moment. "What would you expect all godly men to have in common as the secret of their spiritual lives?" How long do you suppose, even without any
prompting, it would take you to say, "Prayer".
Can you imagine the shock and disbelief on the part of a Christian congregation if their pastor were to mention in a Sunday service that the most godly man with whom he had ever
been acquainted didn't pray?
For all equally the secret passage to the secret room of spiritual victory is secret prayer.
Start today!
So, my dear friend, start seeking God today alone in the secret place.
Spend much time there not seeking help for temporal concerns but seeking His face, His glory, His honor, His praise. Worship Him, Adore Him. Love Him. Thank Him. Wait on Him. Let Him speak. Let Him convict. Let Him correct. Give Him the praise and the preeminence.
And though it takes ever so long, I certify that He will begin to have His way. Little by little you will begin to yield to Him and His will and His way and His power and His glory. Little by little it will become your desire "that in all things He might have the preeminence." Things both
superficial and hurtful will equally begin to drop off, and you will begin to know His victory "that in all things He might have the preeminence."
by Pastor Ron Marr
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