Perhaps you, like me, before I started my intimate journey with God, I thought a secret place was an actual place. I cringe even writing this now because a part of me can’t believe I actually thought that, but it is true. These are some of the things "seasoned" believers never really tell you; instead they assume you know it or expect you to know it. I would hear people say, “you should go into your secret place to pray and spend time with God”. So I went on a hunt for my secret place, and funny enough, I could never find it. I thought to myself, I must be missing something. Where could my secret place be? My closet? Bedroom? Where exactly is this secret place that I must find so I can pray. Of course I felt ashamed to ask anyone around me because they were all seasoned believers and I didn’t want to appear dumb so I pretended to know exactly what is meant by secret place; which is exactly what most of us do. We pretend we know exactly what the pastor or minister is saying so we are not looked at as dumb. If only we know that by doing this we are actually cheating ourselves.

The bible says

“He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty” (Psalm 91:1),

So as I began my journey with the Lord, I started asking Him to reveal to me exactly what the secret place is and how I can locate mine. You laugh but it’s true. He revealed to me that the secret place is actually within me. I said, Lord, you are going to have to explain further than that because You know that I’m the type of person who likes things broken down in its simplest form possible, especially when it comes to biblical wisdom because I don’t want to misconstrue anything.

Pay close attention to what the scripture above says: He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High - the secret place of the Most High is your heart. Your heart is where the Lord dwells, and His heart is where you should dwell. So going into your secret place to pray is simply saying for you to shut yourself off from outside noise, and give your full attention and focus on God alone. Shut off your mind from everything happening around you and spend that time fellowshipping with God. This makes it possible for us to meet with God wherever we are and at any time of the day. We can meet with Him at work, home, or on the road. Now, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t go to a quiet physical place to spend time with God, even “Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed” (Luke 5:16). However, my goal is for you to understand that the secret place is not a physical location but a place of the heart.

So I want to encourage you to always take the time throughout your day to shut out the outside noise and spend some quality time with God. Now that you are know that this can be done anywhere, anytime, there should be nothing stopping you from spending some time in the secret place.

Remember, keep your hope in God for He loves you and has promised to never leave you nor forsake you!