Keeping Secrets
There is one who can set you free, and one only. Our God is a savior and redeemer, and He gave His most precious gift to set us free from sin that leads to death (
Romans 8:1-11). But not only did His Son die for our freedom, He also gave us one another. Remember
James 5:16?
“Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed.”
It is extremely difficult to find healing when you’re keeping your pain a secret. When you are walking around with the fear that someone will find out your secret, it can become consuming to say the least. The stress of trying to hide what’s really going on inside, and the desire to be loved as you truly are, war inside of you, and you end up focusing your entire life through your pain. It takes you further and further into hidden addiction, isolation, and destruction. But when you share your burden with others (with selective wisdom, of course), you are instantly freed from having to live out a lie.
“And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free,” it says in
John 8:32. But if you keep reading, you will find the disciples confused. You see, they didn’t realize they were in bondage until Jesus revealed that they were slaves to sin (
verses 33-34). So long as our sin is held captive within us (kept secret), we are held captive by it.
And I’m not talking about telling a counselor or therapist these things, though that may be very helpful. When you share these things with a counselor, your secret is held in confidence, and you can still go on living a lie when your sixtyminute session is over. Tell someone you love. Tell someone who loves you and who will walk this out with you, even when it gets tough. Tell someone who will ask you the tough questions when you need them, someone who can keep you accountable. Addictions are hard enough by themselves, but they’re so much harder when you try to keep them a secret.