Growing in Jesus - lesson 7 "Serving the Lord in secret (continued)"

Growing in Jesus      - lesson 7

The eye is directed by what we do in secret

     “The lamp of the body is the eye, if therefore your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness.  Matthew 6:22-23

     This lesson carries on from the last lesson on serving the Lord in secret. The eye is governed by our secret life. If our secret life is to pursue all manner of sin than the eye is always full of darkness and whatever it sees is colored by it’s desires.. However if our secret life is to be diligently serving the Lord and in doing all manner of things that He approves of, then our eye will be looking for what is good and joyful and full of life! Our eye will be looking for ways to be doing acts of kindness and love and will be continually seeing others needs.

     If we sin in secret will we not serve the Lord in secret? This is a good question to ask ourselves over and over again. Our secret life is our real life and everything we do springs up from it. Who we are in appearance to everyone is our fake life in comparison. Eventually our secret life will come out and take over our outward life.  Everything we have actually been striving for and pursuing will come forth and bear visible fruit.

     Have you ever seen someone do something worthy of being rewarded and then wanted to be the one who gave the reward? This is how our Heavenly Father is. He wants to take care of rewarding every thing you do that nobody sees, or ever will see. This is the part that He personally loves to take care of and oversee. He is not worried about the things you do that other people reward you for. He is concerned with the things you do that no one will ever know about or see. So many times it seems like our greatest struggles and accomplishments are ones that nobody will ever see. All the times when we chose to leave what we were doing in order to stop and help someone. All the times when we overcame an inner struggle to do what is right when no one was watching. All the times we had patience instead of getting upset. All the times when we fought to surrender something God was asking us to let go of. These are the things that will not lose their reward. Every secret thing that you do is known by your Heavenly Father and He has made it His own personal care in order to bless each of those hidden things. In other words, those secret victories you win are the ones most blessed by the Lord!
     Every time you take a thought captive or hold your tongue or refrain from saying something that you know will only stir up strife, these are the victories that no one will know about because they didn't happen. No one can thank you for something they didn't know you didn't say. Most of the time we fail at this point because then we go on to tell them what we could have said and hadn't... You see, we are always trying to make our obedience to the Lord visible instead of secret. But when you take every thought captive and do what is right in the face of difficulty, the Lord is watching and He will not let your victories go unrewarded. These hidden victories matter more to Him pretty much than anything else you can do, because they refine your character and are the tests He lays out for you. Tests that show what He can trust you with because you have proved yourself faithful in the littlest of things.

     Next time you sit down to pray and read your Bible think about these things. Your secret life is the most real part of your life. Every time you do what is right in secret it will not be in vain. Those are the things the Father Himself is watching over to bless and reward.


God bless!
-Seth