The Secret:Do You Know What it is?

A new book was recently placed in my hand, being touted as having very powerful concepts that I should read this weekend.  The book is entitled, "The Secret" and is copyrighted 2006. 

I have only gotten a few pages into the first chapter, but already it is abundantly clear what this secret is and verses from Scripture began flying through my mind.  Verses from Proverbs, the Gospels, Genesis, etc. 

Interestingly enough, the author of this book, "The Secret", claims you will find it in every known and ancient religion and civilization including both Judaism and Christianity.  The author and those they interview, refer to The Secret as none other than the Law of Attraction.  Even more interesting is where these voices claim this law has particular power, and that is in the mind, in the thoughts.

God's Word has amazing things to say about the human heart and mind.  The first is found in the book of Genesis where we learn that whatever man puts his mind to do, he will accomplish!

Genesis 11:6 And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.

From then on however, every search in my King James Version Bible for the word "imaginations" links the term to the evils found in the heart of unregenerate man.  Same with the thoughts of mankind.

We are told continually to place our thoughts on God and not on ourselves, yet this book, "The Secret" claims this universal Law of Attraction for entirely selfish purposes.  It places the focus squarely on ourselves.

1 Chronicles 28:9  And thou, Solomon my son, know thou the God of thy father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind: for the LORD searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts: if thou seek him, he will be found of thee; but if thou forsake him, he will cast thee off for ever.

Psalms 94:11 The LORD knoweth the thoughts of man, that they are vanity.

1 Corinthians 3:20  And again, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.

Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

Ephesians 6:10-12  Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.  11  Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.  12  For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

We know from Scripture, that the mind is the battle ground of the enemy!  We are told in Proverbs to guard our hearts for out of it are the issues of life!  We are told to take every thought captive to the things of God, not so that we can have everything our hearts desire, but so that we may escape the wiles of the enemy and avoid damning our souls to hell.

Hardly a few pages into this book, the author claims people have been healed, fortunes have been changed, loved ones brought back from the brink of death, risen out of wheel chairs, etc.  All due to this Law of Attraction.

Now this is how this law works:  According to this author, what you think will attract more thoughts just like it.  If they are negative, negative thoughts will join them, if they are positive, positive thoughts will join them.  The author encourages the reader then, to avoid the thoughts that drag them down and focus on the thoughts that will build them up.

On the surface this sounds like a very truthful observation, and similar thoughts are indeed found in the pages of the sacred writings of Judaism and Christianity.  However, without Christ, these are incredibly vain and self-serving, and in Christ, they are misdirected and can cost a person their faith if mishandled.

God does not deny that the heart and mind is a powerful thing.  Our emotions have much to do with how we see the world and respond to it, both in our thoughts and in the actions those thoughts produce.  It is 100% true that everything anyone has ever said or done, has been based on a thought first and foremost!  Every single thing!  This is where satan wants to trip us up if he can.  Take our minds off Christ and onto ourselves, get us thinking that we are our own savior and can call our own destiny.

This message comes out in these first few pages loud and clear!  Through our thoughts, this author preaches, we can decide our destiny and we can bring it about our way in our time!

God's Word says there is a way that seems right to a man, but the Lord decides the outcome!  The mantra that man is the chief conductor of his soul, that man is king of his own heart, that man charts his own waters has indeed been trumpeted down through the centuries from the Garden of Eden through to this book now sitting on my desk!

The enemy of our souls knows how to package his lies so that we take the throne of our lives and not God! 

I am quite frankly amazed at how the lie is spelled out in these first few pages of this book. 

For the Christian, we must be aware of these kinds of teachings and ensure that we do not propogate them in our own hearts and lives or those of others.  Scripture tells us to place our thoughts on things above, not on earth beneath, to seek first the Kingdom of God and not our own ambitions, to lean on God's understandings and not our own, to place the paths of our lives in God's hands and not seek to direct it ourselves, to place Christ on the throne and not sit there instead.  Any thought that becomes self-serving is to be thrown under the Cross and every thought that serves God is to be exalted and acted on.

In this way we see what God means when He says that man's ways are so much lower than His.  Yes if we dwell on the negative too often, we will engage in what is known as self-fulfilling prophecy and make our lives worse instead of better merely by how we look at the world.  I'm not disputing that.  The positive thinker always does better in life than the negative thinker.  The twist is where those positive thoughts are focussed and the type of thoughts focussed on most.

A person can think themselves ill and many times can think themselves better, no argument.  There is a certain level of truth to the concept of mind over matter.  However the most positive thinker still needs medication and doctor attention every now and then.  We are not the master of our ship as the world would like to teach us.  God is!  We must learn to see ourselves as God sees us, learn to dwell on the precepts, promises and teachings of God's Word and allow them to shape how we think and feel about the world around us.  We must make the Kingdom of God our focus and dwell on the things above instead of on the things beneath if we ever hope to be of use to God among the lost we run into every day!

The law of attraction. . . The best Biblical example of this is the various times God says to draw near to Him and He will draw near to us! 

James 4:7-8 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.  8  Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.

We can attract the enemy by the thoughts we allow into our minds, or we can attract the God of the Universe by the thoughts we choose to put into our minds.  If our thoughts are always about ourselves and our selfish ambition, guess who's going to come along and encourage those thoughts?  If our thoughts are toward God and the things of God, guess who's going to come along to encourage those thoughts?  Who do we want to attract?  Yes thoughts beget like thoughts, but thoughts go further than the author of "The Secret" understands, and attract spiritual forces for good or evil, for eternity separated from or drawn near to Christ Himself.

We can attract the wrong people into our lives, as Proverbs says, encouraging us to be careful the company we keep as bad company corrupts good character.  We can attract our own downfall by hanging out with the wrong crowd and hording riches for ourselves.  Proverbs is a great book for how we as Christians should think and feel and as a result behave toward life around us! 

The secret is not in the Law of Attraction, it is in where we choose to put our focus.  That is the battle ground!  God gave us a free will to choose the influences we allow into our lives for good or evil. 

I'm not sure I want to continue reading this book now that I have had just a small taste of the lie it is perpetrating.  I'm not sure I want to let it's words influence how I think and who gets to sit on the throne of my heart and mind.  Discernment should be the greater part of valor, I feel.  I will not allow the enemy a potential foothold to influence the thoughts and imaginations of my heart.

Scripture is the only psychology textbook I need, and contains too many examples of the heart and mind found without God, contrasted to many examples of the heart and mind found IN God.  The Holy Spirit knows the heart of man better than any human author ever will!  God's Word cuts right to the chase of every heart and mind that picks it up, acting as mirror, discerner, teacher, rebuker, encourager, exhorter, comforter, and more! 

No, I know The Secret to living an abundant life here on earth, and that secret is to put God first in all I do, all I think, all I say, etc.  Do I live it out all the time?  No, unfortunately I am not always found living these out, but I know them and endeavor to live them out as best I am able, continually asking the Holy Spirit's help in the process.

It is my prayer that this author and those quoted, will learn this greater secret and that God will get the glory in their lives.

This book places man at the center of the universe, but God says He is the center of the universe and we are to be drawn to Him!  No. . . The last couple pages of the book are worse than the first few. . . Man is NOT King of the Universe!  Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God, is KING!!!  I read the last few pages of HIS book too, and I know who wins! . . . and it isn't man!