This weekend, Pastor Josh Blount continues our series called Stronger - This Must Be Stronger Than That. We’ll be taking a look at how your Secret Place must be stronger than Public Place.
This weekend, Pastor Josh Blount continues our series called Stronger - This Must Be Stronger Than That. We’ll be taking a look at how your Secret Place must be stronger than Public Place.
Matthew 6:6
But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.
The secret place is where you get alone with God and spend time in fellowship with Him.
Martin Luther
“As it is the business of tailors to make clothes, and the business of cobblers to mend shoes, so it is the business of Christians to pray!
Prayer - to offer a devout petition of praise or thanks to God, to enter into spiritual communion with God.
Psalm 25:14 AMP
The secret [of the sweet, satisfying companionship] of the Lord have they who fear (revere and worship) Him, and He will show them His covenant and reveal to them its [deep, inner] meaning.
Psalms 25:14 TPT
There's a private place reserved for the devoted lovers of Yahweh, where they sit near him and receive the revelation-secrets of his promises.
Matthew 6:6
But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.
Jeremiah 17:5-6
Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who draws strength from mere flesh and whose heart turns away from the Lord. 6 That person will be like a bush in the wastelands; they will not see prosperity when it comes. They will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives.
Jeremiah 17:7-8
“But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. 8 They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.”
Colossians 1:15
Christ is the visible image of the invisible God.
Luke 5:15
Yet the news about him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses.
Luke 5:16
But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.
Lonely = erēmos - solitary, deserted places, secret places
Secret strength from God in the public place, comes from secret time with God in the private place.
Luke 5:17
And the power of the Lord was with Jesus to heal the sick.
The power of the Lord was present for Jesus to heal fulfill his purpose after he pulled away and spent some private time in the secret place with God.
In the Secret place, you access the reward of the protection of God.
Psalm 91:1
He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
Psalms 32:7
Lord, you are my secret hiding place, protecting me from these troubles, surrounding me with songs of gladness!
In the Secret place, you access the reward of the peace of God.
Psalm 139:13,15-16
For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. 15 My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. 16 Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.
In the Secret place, you access the reward of God.
Matthew 5:8
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
Jeremiah 29:13
You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.
The secret place is where you get alone with God and spend time in fellowship with Him.
Psalm 34:4-5
I sought the Lord, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears. Those who look to him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed.