June 28 Bible Reading Plan

Whenever you do something, act as if all the world were watching.

- Thomas Jefferson (1)

I love these words from Thomas Jefferson! This attitude needs to be the attitude of an unbreakable man. Why?

Too many men are being broken because of sins they commit in the privacy of their own lives. They think that because no one can see them, it's okay to compromise or do things they know they shouldn't.

The dark, alone times are the most dangerous for a man of God. We will do the right thing when the eyeballs are on us, but do we stand firm when it's just us?

Secret sins are one of the biggest ways Satan traps men. He makes them think they can continue doing what they do secretly. After all, it isn't hurting anyone, and no one else knows. He encourages men to keep their sins hidden, but he doesn't tell them the whole story.

The whole story is that Satan wants you to stay bound in secret sins so that one day he can expose you! He wants to reveal what it is you are doing in secret so he can destroy you, your life, your relationship with God, and your relationship with others. He wants to shout to the world what you do in secret to humiliate you.

Satan is not the only person who wants to reveal your secret sins. God's goal is to shout your secret sins from the rooftop. How do I know this? Because the Bible says so!

For nothing is hidden that will not be made manifest, nor is anything secret that will not be known and come to light. (Luke 8:17, ESV)

And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account. (Hebrews 4:13, ESV)

For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil. (Ecclesiastes 12:14, ESV)

Would not God discover this? For he knows the secrets of the heart. (Psalm 44:21, ESV)

On that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus. (Romans 2:16, ESV)

Therefore whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in private rooms shall be proclaimed on the housetops. (Luke 12:3, ESV)

You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence. (Psalms 90:8, ESV)

"Am I only a God nearby," declares the Lord, "and not a God far away?

Who can hide in secret places so that I cannot see them?" declares the Lord. "Do not I fill heaven and earth?" declares the Lord. (Jeremiah 23:23-24, NIV)

These verses show us that nothing is hidden from God. We may be able to hide our secret sins from others, but God sees it all! Not only does He see it all, but these verses show that He will expose our secret sin.

God wants to expose you and your secret sin because He wants to set you free.

He wants it to come to light to save you.

Satan wants to do it to destroy you. If two such powerful forces are bound and determined to expose your secret sin, how can we keep it hidden?

It is time for unbreakable men of God to stand up and say enough is enough! It is time we overcome our secret sins! How do we do it?

We do it by becoming tattletales. Remember when we were kids, there was always one kid who always told all the secrets or turned you in if he knew you did something wrong? This kid was usually labeled a tattletale. Well, it is time we become spiritual tattletales on ourselves.

Secrets lose their power when exposed to the light of truth and honesty. So, the first step to revealing our secret sin is to expose ourselves and confess the secret.

You also need to confess the sin to God and ask for forgiveness.

Why must you confess the sin if God already knows about it?

Exposing ourselves to God kills our flesh. It breaks the power the secret has over us. Exposing our secret sin frees us. So, we must confess to God and others and ask for forgiveness and deliverance from our secret sins.

Next, you have to go commando on your secret sin! You have to go to extremes with your sin. You must make restitution if your secret sin requires it (i.e., financial sins, etc).

You have to open yourself up to accountability until it hurts.

You need fellow brothers in Christ who will relentlessly hold you accountable, and you need to be honest with them about everything.

Finally, you have to commit yourself to living with honesty and integrity. All the confessing, repenting, and accountability in the world are useless if you are not committed to being free. That is why secret sin is so crippling; it is really up to you if you overcome it or not. But if you set your heart to live free of your secret sin, surrender daily to the Holy Spirit's control, and submit to the authority and accountability of others, you can be free of secret sin.

If you don't do this, your secret sin will destroy you.

That is as plain as I can say it.

The decision is yours today. Will you become an unbreakable man and conquer your secret sin?

I hope your answer is a resounding YES!

Bibliography:

1. "Thomas Jefferson Quotes." BrainyQuote.com. BrainyMedia Inc, 2024. 13 August 2024. https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/thomas_jefferson_141477