GOD WILL JUDGE YOUR SECRET LIFE

WISDOM FOR LIVING DAILY DEVOTIONAL

JUNE 4,  2021

TOPIC: GOD WILL JUDGE YOUR SECRET LIFE

BY T. O. BANSO 

“The day will surely come when God, by Jesus Christ, will judge everyone’s secret life. This is my message” (Romans 2:16 New Living Translation).

Our lives can be divided into two ­ – private and public. In terms of behaviour, you should not have a sinful secret life – a life you’re living different from the one people know, something you’re doing that you don’t want others to know or something you’re covering from people, something you’re doing which you won’t be proud of if people should know about it. That is duplicity; it’s a double life.

It’s possible to lead a double life and succeed for a long time or sometimes till you die. That may be hidden from human beings but not God. The Bible says God knows what you do in secret.  Jesus said, “Pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly” (Matthew 6:6b). In  Matthew 6:18, He said we should not appear to men to be fasting, but to our Father who is in the secret place and our Father who sees in secret will reward us openly.

What applies to prayer and fasting also applies to other departments of your life. If God sees you in secret when you pray, He also knows other things you do in secret, which other people don’t know. God doesn’t need to find out what you; He knows. He is the Omniscient.

If God asks you a question, it is not because He doesn’t know the answer. It will be stupid to lie to Him. When He asked Adam in the Garden of Eden, “Where are?” (Genesis 3:9), it wasn’t because He didn’t know. He knew when Adam and Eve were eating the forbidden fruit. He just didn’t talk or stop them – they were free moral agents; they were free to make their choices.

If you have a sinful secret life, evil deeds that are hidden from others, people may take you for who you’re not; they may think you’re living a holy life whereas you’re not. But God is not deceived. “He reveals deep and secret things;  He knows what is in the darkness, and light dwells with Him” (Daniel 2:22 New King James Version).

David said, “O God, You know my foolishness; and my sins are not hidden from You” (Psalm 69:5 New King James Version).  Psalm 90:8 says, “You have set our iniquities before You, our secret sins in the light of Your countenance” (New King James Version).

Also, the psalmist said in Psalm 44:20-21, “If we had forgotten the name of our God, or stretched out our hands to a foreign god, would not God search this out? For He knows the secrets of the heart” (New King James Version).

Don’t have a sinful secret life and think God doesn’t know, probably because everything seems to be going well for you. Nothing is hidden from God. You cannot hide from Him.  God said concerning Judah, “For My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from My face, nor is their iniquity hidden from My eyes.  And first I will repay double for their iniquity and their sin, because they have defiled My land; they have filled My inheritance with the carcasses of their detestable and abominable idols” (Jeremiah 16:17-18 New King James Version).

God comprehends your path and your lying down; He is acquainted with all your ways. He knows the words on your tongue; He knows everything all together (Psalm 139:3-4).  The day is coming when everything hidden will be exposed. Even in our times, we have seen it happen. Some people’s criminal activities were exposed as one small thing led to the other and they fell from grace to grass. Some people were buried with honours only for scandals that rubbished their names to break out after their death.

Only recently, something prompted a father to do a DNA test to determine the paternity of one of his children and the result showed that he was not the father. That led him to request the same test for the remaining two or three children and the test confirmed the same. He was not the biological father of any of the children he had been raising under his roof for many years. How devastated he must have been! What explanation would his former wife, the mother of these children, give for this?

Jesus said, “For there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, nor hidden that will not be known. Therefore whatever you have spoken in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have spoken in the ear in inner rooms will be proclaimed on the housetops” (Luke 12:2-3 New King James Version).

The writer of Hebrews said, “Nothing in all the world can be hidden from God. Everything is clear and lies open before him. And to him we must explain the way we have lived” (Hebrews 4:13 International Children’s Bible).  

Never mistake God’s silence for ignorance or weakness. He’s only giving you some time to repent and forsake your sins,  The apostle Paul asked, “Don’t you realize how kind, tolerant, and patient God is with you? Or don’t you care? Can’t you see how kind he has been in giving you time to turn from your sin?” (Romans 2:4 New Living Translation).  

The apostle Peter also talked about the longsuffering of God. “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9 New King James Version).

Nevertheless, God will ultimately judge everyone’s secret life. The apostle Paul said, “The day will surely come when God, by Jesus Christ, will judge everyone’s secret life. This is my message” (Romans 2:16 New Living Translation). He’ll ultimately punish those who live their lives in disobedience to the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

2 Thessalonians 1:7-8 talks about when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Verses 9-10 say they shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, when He comes, in that Day, to be glorified in His saints and to be admired among all those who believe, because of what was testified about Him.  Repent now! Nobody is a saint in the sense of not having done anything sinful in the past. But God is calling everyone to repentance, not to continue in a sinful lifestyle secretly or openly.

Acts 17:30-31 says, “Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead” (New King James Version).

Don’t feel secure because your secret sins have not been exposed as some people have been exposed. That’s a grand design by the devil to destroy you!  1Timothy 5:24-25 warns, “Remember that some people lead sinful lives, and everyone knows they will be judged. But there are others whose sin will not be revealed until later. In the same way, everyone knows how much good some people do, but there are others whose good deeds won’t be known until later” (New Living Translation).

Don’t be deceived by your good reputation different from your character. God knows who you are in secret, and that’s more important than who you are in public. What are the things you’ve been doing in secret? Ephesians 5:12-13 says, “It is shameful even to talk about the things that ungodly people do in secret. But when the light shines on them, it becomes clear how evil these things are” (New Living Translation). Are you ashamed of your secret deeds? Repent now!

Sadly, Romans 2:5-6 says, “But no, you won’t listen. So you are storing up terrible punishment for yourself because of your stubbornness in refusing to turn from your sin. For there is going to come a day of judgment when God, the just judge of all the world, will judge all people according to what they have done” (New Living Translation).  

May you listen. May you not store up terrible punishment for yourself because of your stubbornness in refusing to turn from your sin. May you not consider yourself smart before the all-wise, all-knowing God and say that what the Bible says about judgment and hell is not true.

Don’t dare God! Don’t exhaust His kindness, tolerance, and patience with you. Quit your sinful secret life; it’s an open book before God.

TAKE ACTION!

If you are not born again, you need to give your life to Jesus now. I urge you to take the following steps: *Admit you are a sinner and you cannot save yourself and repent of your sins. *Confess Jesus as your Lord and Saviour. *Renounce your past way of life – your relationship with the devil and his works. *Invite Jesus into your life. *As a mark of seriousness to mature in the faith, start attending a Bible-believing and Bible-teaching church. There they will teach you how to grow in the Kingdom of God.

Kindly say this prayer now: O Lord God, I come unto you today. I know I am a sinner and I cannot save myself. I believe that Jesus is the Son of God who died on the cross to save me and resurrected the third day. I repent of my sins and confess Jesus as my Lord and Saviour. I surrender my life to Jesus now and invite Him into my heart. By this prayer, I know I am saved. Thank you, Jesus, for saving me and making me a child of God.

I believe you have said this prayer from your heart. Congratulations! You will need to join a Bible-believing and Bible-teaching church in your area where they will teach you how to live your new life in Christ Jesus. I pray that you flourish like the palm tree and grow like the cedar of Lebanon. May you grow into Christ in all things and become all God wants you to be. I will be glad to hear from you. The Lord be with you.

PRAYER POINTS:  Father, I repent of my sinful lifestyle, especially my sinful secret life, and forsake it from today. Forgive me, Lord.  Father, I reject the lie of the devil that You don’t know or care about my secret life and nobody will know the sins I have been committing secretly.  Henceforth, I shall live my life in obedience to Your Word. No more duplicity or hypocrisy. Holy Spirit, I receive Your help to live a Christ-honouring life.

(For over 600 in-depth and powerful messages by T. O. Banso, visit: www.cedarministry.org).

T. O. Banso is the President, Cedar Ministry International, Abuja, Nigeria.
Phone No: +2348155744752, +2348033113523
WhatsApp No: +2349081295947
Email: cedarministryintl@yahoo.com,
cedarministryng@gmail.com
Website: www.cedarministry.org