[Transcript of “A 5 minute cuppa” published by Horley Baptist Church on YouTube[1], March 2021]
Hi everyone, welcome to ‘a five minute cuppa’. This is the place that you can come any time of day just for five minutes, to relax, put your feet up, have a cuppa and listen to a few words to help you grow in your relationship with God.
I wonder where you talk to and listen to God. Well, I know we can talk to Him anytime or anywhere but do you have a go-to place where you can just be just you and Jesus, totally undisturbed? Some people call it their secret place. I like that expression; it creates for me that image of a place of safety, somewhere that you can be honest and completely you. Somewhere you can receive sustenance and be prepared for whatever lies ahead in your day or your week.
I’ve heard of people that use a room in their house as a secret place, just shutting the door so that they can be on their own; others have a special prayer chair or find a place in their garden. My favourite one of all, proving that you don’t need a spare room, chair or garden, is Susanne Wesley’s secret place. She was the mother of the famous John and Charles Wesley as well as eight other children. Her house and life were always so busy but for a couple of hours every day she would put her pinny over her head and talk with Jesus.
I’ve recently been reading some of the New Testament gospels and asking the Holy Spirit to speak to me about what I can learn about the human Jesus when he was physically walking among us. One of the things that really strikes me is how often Jesus came away from people and even his best friends, just to spend time alone with the Father and that time was so vitally important. It was his life source and helped prepare him or helped him to reflect on the events of the day, whether that was making important decisions like choosing his disciples or having a coaching session with his disciples, to help them understand who he was, or healing the sick or grieving for a loss or facing head-on those who wanted to criticize or even destroy Him. In fact, throughout the time of Jesus’s public ministry there was something pretty major going on every single day. How did Jesus do all that stuff without giving up or falling apart without saying, “You know I’m just going to leave them to it”?
It’s clear to me that the secret place was the key for Jesus. This was where he received comfort, where he was given knowledge about events and people, where he received the wisdom and the power to carry out his Father’s plan. There are many challenging words that come out of the mouth of Jesus and they’re recorded for us to chew over, but one of the things I continuously find challenging are the words: “You will do what you have seen me do, you will do what you have seen me do and you will do even greater things than these”. Wow! I wonder what that would look like for you and for me, to have the strength and power to know what to do or how to be in places where people are afraid or grieving or sick, or where there are those that are misunderstood and where people try to put us down.
There isn’t one of us that hasn’t faced tricky times recently and we can’t exactly say what will happen for us today or tomorrow. What we do know is that Jesus offers a way of preparing us daily in that secret place for whatever lies ahead. If you’re struggling a bit at the moment, maybe feeling annoyed with yourself for the way you’ve been reacting to the people and situations around you, why not make it a priority to come away and discover or develop your secret place. I invite you to try it out and see what a difference that it makes.
[1] YouTube link: Your Secret Place
Bible references: John 14 v12
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Contributed by Sandy Turner; © the Author
