Dipping the Quill Deeper: Keeping Godly Secrets

by Eva Marie Everson 

Can you keep a secret? Can you? 

It’s difficult at times, I know. Especially the good news kind. Like, say, the kind that says, “Our family is enlarging come this fall.” Or, “Our granddaughter made it into law school.” Or, “The cancer is gone. Gone. The doctors don’t know what to think.”

Those secrets are much harder to keep, I dare say, than the juiciest bits of gossip. 

Jesus often showed His penchant for keeping secrets. 

When Peter declared that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the Living God, Jesus’ reply was that they should not tell anyone (Matthew 16). Often, after healing those who were sick or even dead, He ordered witnesses to stay silent. 

After He was transfigured in the presence of Peter, James, and John—and in the company of Elijah and Moses—He told the three not to tell what they’d seen until He’d been raised from the dead.

Can you imagine? They must have thought, “What does He mean raised from the dead?” But also, let’s say Andrew came to his brother Peter afterward and said, “Hey, tell what went on up on that mountain,” surely Peter would have been itching to tell him. But he did not. 

Jesus said to keep quiet.

Have you ever had times like this in your experience as a writer? Times when God shows you even so much as a glimmer of what is to come in your writing ministry or in your career? Times when, even given such great news, you knew you were to just zip it?

It’s hard, especially if you know something big is on the horizon because your agent and you (or just you) are in negotiations for something super exciting, something you’ve worked hard toward and prayed diligently for. 

Staying silent under God’s command can be humbling, however. Think about it—you see a fellow writer’s post on social media in which they share some big new they have, and you so want to comment with something like, “Wait till you hear my news!”

But God knows that this moment isn’t about your moment. This is their moment. And yours will come. And you will have grown humble (and perhaps more so) in the process because you will see that this isn’t about your work; it’s about His work. Kingdom work.

So let’s look back at what Peter or James or John may have said once Jesus was out of earshot. “Guys! You should have seen it. It was . . . it was like . . . and then Peter said something stupid about building tents . . . and there was Moses—no, seriously, Moses—and Elijah—no, we’re not kidding.”

Oomph. Eventually, that moment would have lost its luster because it went against what God had commanded.

Instead, many years after the resurrection and ascension of Christ, Peter wrote: For we did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. He received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain (2 Peter 1: 16-18). 

John wrote: That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make our[a] joy complete (1 John 1: 1-4).*

Could finer words have been written about this magnificent moment? Would they have been as precious had the timing not been right? Had they not kept the secret and allowed His story in their story to be about the Kingdom’s story?

What about you? Can you keep a secret?

*(James was the first of the Twelve to be martyred and, therefore, to our knowledge, did not write of his witnessing of the transfiguration. See Acts 12: 1,2.)

TWEETABLE

Dipping the Quill Deeper: Keeping Godly Secrets, thoughts from author @EvaMarieEverson on @EdieMelson (Click to Tweet)

Eva Marie Everson is the CEO of Word Weavers International, the director of Florida Christian Writers Conference, and the contest director for Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference. She is the multiple award-winning author of more than 40 books and countless articles and blogposts. She is also an award-winning speaker and a Bible teacher and the most recent recipient of the AWSA Lifetime Achievement Award (2022). 

Eva Marie is often seen at writers conferences across the States. She served as a mentor for the Jerry B. Jenkins Christian Writers Guild and taught as a guest professor at Taylor University in 2011. She and her husband make their home in Central Florida where they enjoy their grandchildren. They are owned by one persnickety cat named Vanessa.

Eva Marie's latest book, THE THIRD PATH, takes a look at 26 of the questions God asked in the Bible, then makes them personal to the reader. The premise of the book is currently her most asked for continuing workshop at writers conferences.