The Secret of the Lord
Discover God's Reviving Power For Your Life
The Secret of the Lord is available for purchase at our online bookstore.
TWELVE YEARS AGO
I remember well the day I sat in my doctor’s office twelve years ago.
“Hello, Dannah,” she greeted me. “What a bash last night!”
We made small talk over the grand gala my husband and I had hosted just hours ago. We’d had 200 dozen white roses flown in from the Rose Bowl parade’s growing fields. The hit of the party was the white chocolate dessert boxes with our magazine’s logo imprinted onto them in colored sugar. In my sequined gown and with my hair swept into a French twist, I’d presented one of my doctor’s brave and pioneering cancer patients with our magazine’s Woman of the Year Award.
Eventually we turned to the reason for my appointment. The glitz and glamour facade gave way to the dark cloud of emptiness that pervaded my life.
Tears flowed.
“Well…I…ahhh,” I stalled. “I’m so tired all the time. But it’s more than that. It’s like there’s this thick cloud covering me. I feel so….”
My mind raced for words. I couldn’t speak. What was wrong with me? At work, at church…even at home with my “million-dollar-family”—one boy and one bouncing baby girl—I felt disconnected and confused. I woke up most days wishing I could sleep them out.
“I feel…” I attempted to speak but still couldn’t find the words. Through my uncontrollable crying I heard pieces of my doctor’s kind council.
“….depression….lack of serotonin in the brain…anti-depressants…”
She handed me a prescription.
“Dannah,” she encouraged. “You really need to slow down. Find what really matters and do just that.”
“Doesn’t it all matter?” I asked myself on the way home. “Isn’t that why I do it?”
I realized then that I didn’t know.
John 10:10 says that Jesus came that we may “have life, and have it to the full.” Many believers do not know such abundant life. Rather, they’re as depressed and discouraged and exhausted as their non-Christian peers. Do you know what I’m talking about? Do you need to be revived?
Merriam-Webster’s 11th edition defines revive as “to live again,” “to return to consciousness or life” or “to restore from depressed or inactive or unused state.” For nearly ten years, I existed in that place. It was one of such heaviness. Each day, I was filled with an ache so deeply imbedded in my being that I preferred sleeping to being awake. And when I was awake, I felt like I was covered in a cloud that created a mental state of existence somewhere between confusion and numbness.
If you’re longing for something more, you’re far from alone. Since 1991, the percentage of unchurched women has risen from 18 to 30 percent. Today’s overextended woman has no patience for a powerless, impersonal church experience. Among those who are sticking it out, half are still desperately trying to find a few close friends. Twenty-five percent of those say they feel discouraged and depressed. They’re stuck behind masks of perfection.
It doesn’t have to be this way.
The psalmist King David writes a powerful prescription for the masked perfection and power-lessness believers are experiencing today. Psalm 25:14 reads, “The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him; and he will show them his covenant.” What is the secret of the Lord? This isn’t a secret like you or I would know a secret. It’s a rich Hebrew phrase that is difficult to translate into our language. Its most literal translation would be “the people of God who are friends.” It’s us. But we can’t stop there, because the Hebrew language describes these people. They are a tight knit group of intimate friends with unconditional trust; a circle of friends among whom weaknesses, strengths, successes, and failures are shared. Within this circle, our sins are confessed and forgiven. Our masks of perfection are removed. We aren’t afraid to tell our stories, and we are truly known. The secret of the Lord is the intimate friendship that exists between believers and it is a place of abundant, reviving power. I can’t wait to have the power of the secret of the Lord unleashed in your life!
It’s real.
It’s life-changing.
It’s reviving, and it’s the door to spiritual power.
I’ve found it. Today my life is full of freedom and purpose… and I’m not completely exhausted and confused. I love what I do and I’ve never worked less hard and accomplished so much God-sized stuff.
Do you want that too? Come.
Discover the secret of the Lord.
