Date: June 14, 2023|Series: Youth for Jesus|Number: Vol. 6, No. 5 “The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.” (Deut 29:29NIV) One of the things we don’t like is to have the people in our lives keeping things from us. We don’t like it because it gives us the feeling that we are not loved or trusted enough by them. But that is not always true. We ourselves know that it is not always because we don’t love or trust people that we don’t tell them certain things that we know. On the contrary, there are times that the reason we don’t tell certain things to some people is that we love them. But does that even make sense? What sense is there in keeping things from someone that we love? Well, there is sense in keeping certain things from someone that we love, if we are pretty sure that the person cannot handle the knowledge of those things. For instance, does God not love us? He surely loves us, in fact, with an everlasting and unfailing love. Yet, as we see in our opening text, God too has secrets. In other words, it is not everything that God knows or that He is doing that He reveals to those He loves. And why is that so? It is so because it is not everything that God will love to communicate to us that we can handle. Our Lord Jesus, when He was about to die on the cross, said this to His disciples: “There is so much more I want to tell you, but you can't bear it now.” (John 16:12NLT) Did you see that? The Lord loved His disciples so much that He wanted to reveal to them a lot of kingdom secrets. But did He tell them everything He had on mind to tell them? No! Why? It was because they did not have the capacity to handle it. See, just as much as truth can set free, it can also destroy. And there are certain truths that will destroy you or make you a destroyer, if they are revealed to you. That, of course, will be because you are not wise, mature, strong or trustworthy enough to handle them. Why was Samson reluctant to tell Delilah the secret of his power? Was it because he did not love her? No! On the contrary, as the bible tells us, he was desperately in love with her. But did she love him as much as he loved her? No! So, entrusting to her the secret of his power was only going to make her destroy him. And that was exactly what happened. She destroyed him with the knowledge of the secret of his power that was given to her. (Cf. Judges 16) So, before you start getting upset that someone will not let you know certain secrets of theirs, first consider your ability to handle them. Can you actually handle what you are going to hear without destroying yourself or the person telling you with it? You may think you can. But what makes you so sure you can, when you have not even heard what is coming? Why don’t you allow the person in question decide whether you can handle it or not? For example, we don’t decide for God what He tells us and what He does not tell us. It is on Him to make such decisions. It is on Him to determine what we can handle and what we cannot handle, for He knows us thoroughly. What we can do, however, is to grow up to that point in our walk with Him where He can trust us with any truth. In like manner, those of us who have children know that they don’t decide for us what secrets of our lives or of our families we tell them. We make such decisions. But as they grow up and show themselves responsible enough to handle the secrets of our lives and families, we start revealing them to them, even without their asking. Now that is how it should be with you also. Grow up, if you want the people in your life to be telling you their secrets. Yes, grow and up and prove yourself to be someone they can trust with anything concerning their lives. Otherwise, you should just let them be and focus on your own life. By the way, what do you want to do with someone’s secrets? What will your knowledge of their secrets add to your life or to their life? Secrets ought to be revealed to people only on need-basis. That means even if you are in a love relationship with someone, you don’t need to know any secret of their life that won’t build both of you up or that poses no danger to any of you or your love affairs. So, stop making yourself sick because of people’s secrets that have nothing to add to or remove from your life or their lives. Instead, focus on building yourself up to be someone that those in your life can rely on. That way, you might end up being the one begging them not to tell you their secrets. Copyright © 2023, Reality Desk, a ministry of Alaythia Bible Church --This material is the sole property of Reality Desk. It may be copied for personal non-commercial use only in its entirety free of charge. All copies must contain this copyright notice. Please direct any questions you may have to pastor@abcministryng.com or call: 08037592851 (WhatsApp Number: 07085711280)
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Title: Can you handle them? | By: J.O. Lawal| Fire In My Bones
