The movie "The Secret" has become very popular. CNN quickly jumped on the bandwagon when Larry King Live did two shows, each with a different panel of experts, on the principles taught in the movie. Ellen DeGeneres invited a couple of the speakers from the movie to her show, and recently a whole panel of them appeared on Oprah. The reaction to the panel discussion was supposedly so great that Oprah decided to do a "Reaction to" show.
I'm not a real fan of the Law of Attraction as it's being taught, because it doesn't make sense that like attracts like, when everything I've ever learned about magnetism is that opposites attract. Having watched "The Secret" a couple of times I think that there are some things we can learn from the movie, but also some things that don't line up with the real Truth, God's word.
If you are a Christian, and you're looking for the gospel, you won't find it. Most, if not all of the people who were interviewed for the movie are probably not Christians. That doesn't mean that they don't have some basic belief in God, or that they don't accept and quote some scriptures. But "The Secret" is really about what some call "universal laws" and how they can be applied to create the kind of life we want.
Since I didn't expect to find the God of the Bible in the movie, I wasn't disappointed. After all, the producers never claimed that it was supposed to be about traditional Christian views and principles, so it's not surprising that they were omitted. But I was intrigued by the fact that some of the information was very much in line with my view of faith. And if we can mentally substitute the word "faith" whenever someone talks about the Law of Attraction, there may be some things we can learn from people who believe in this "law".
When we compare the teachings in "The Secret" with the Bible, we do find some interesting parallels. Proverbs 4:23 tells us, "Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life." In other words, be aware of and take control over what is happening in your heart, because what is happening in your heart will determine your life.
Something that was brought up in the movie was how our unconscious thoughts, things that we're not aware of, are controlling our lives. Everything in our lives may not be the direct result of our thinking, but how we react to those events will be decided by what we really believe deep in our hearts. Whether an event ruins our lives, or becomes the launching pad for change and growth, will be determined mostly by our habitual way of thinking, by our beliefs.
Jesus said, "For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks." (Matthew 12:34) The thoughts and intentions of our hearts, our true beliefs, will be made manifest by what we say. And Proverbs 18:12 says, "Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit."
What is in our hearts will be expressed by our words and actions, and those words and actions will bring forth fruit in our lives. That fruit is the results we get in life. Does that mean that we attract sickness and poverty, or health and wealth, simply by the things that we think about?
The nation of Israel that came out of Egypt never entered the Promised Land. Upon hearing that there were fortified cities and giants in the land, they complained that God had brought them there to kill them, and they even wished that they had died in the wilderness. (Numbers 14:1-4) And the sad truth is that they got exactly what they wished for, they perished and never saw the Promised Land.
There have been times in my life when I've looked at the promises God has given me, but I've allowed myself to get overwhelmed by the problems that I saw. Sure there may be giants in the land, but God is more than able to defeat them and help me overcome any problems. But God won't force His blessings on me, I have to be willing to believe in them and receive them, and that is where faith enters the picture.
What we have in our lives is based on what we believe. And I have to realize that even though I talk about believing the Bible, there are a lot of things in scripture that I still don't completely accept. When Jesus said that we could move mountains with just our faith, I tend to struggle with that concept. And I'm left having to decide whether I want to reinterpret what Jesus said so that it's easier for me to comprehend, or if I can open my mind to the true power of faith.
How God answers our faith and changes our lives, creating situations and circumstances that help us move towards our desires and dreams, is a mystery. Ecclesiastes 11:5 even tells us that we won't be able to figure it out. Does it have something to do with the energy that we put out? In some ways I'm sure that it does, but that doesn't mean that the Law of Attraction is some great and wonderful secret that will change our lives.
When I compare what "The Secret" teaches to the Bible, the first thing that jumps out at me is that they are really talking about faith. In Mark 11:23 He said, "I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him."
Calling the movie "The Secret" and advertising it by saying that people can learn some secret information that has been coveted, suppressed, and even hidden from the masses is probably just good marketing. But it really isn't a secret; it's just a truth that few people, even many Christians, don't really understand. I think that a lot of people struggle like I do with the idea that our faith is powerful and that it shapes our lives.
But like I said, the movie wasn't produced to teach people about the Bible or faith in God. And even though I found some of it very interesting, and in some ways it confirmed many of the things I believe about faith and how we can exercise it, it falls short in some very important areas.
In the movie God is almost completely absent, and He is replaced by something called "the universe". And unlike the universe they talked about, which is just something that acts like a magical genie and grants us our every wish, God is a living, loving being. When we put our faith in God, we don't have to find some secret formula that will get us what we want. Instead we come to our Father who loves us and who wants to give us more than we can imagine (Ephesians 3:20-21).
And they also miss the boat because they put man in God's place. We become the creators, and the real Creator is ignored. And while I do believe that we need to believe in God for a lot more in our lives, the way the Bible teaches it is that everything comes from God. We are the branches and we can't do anything by ourselves. The only way we can create is when God works through us.
In Deuteronomy 8 God talks about the blessings and wealth that Israel will enjoy, and in verses 17-18 He warns them not think that it was their power or the strength of their own hands that brought them this wealth. They were to always remember that it was God who gave them the ability to produce wealth.
One of the most important things that we need to keep in the forefront of our thinking is that everything comes from God. It's not the universe acting like a magic genie and bringing us our every wish, it's a loving Father who answers our prayers so that His name will be glorified.
There are things that I learned by watching "The Secret", and one of them was that it misses the Truth in some very real ways. I did gain a better appreciation for the role of visualization and emotion when it comes to our faith, something I've understood for some time, and I enjoyed seeing people put their faith in action. And if nothing else, Christians should learn to make better use of our faith. If non-believers can create great lives by using something they call the Law of Attraction, just try to imagine what incredible things God can do when we put all our hope and trust, our faith, in Him.
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Thank you for your Biblical perspective in response to Oprah's "The
Secret." I knew that some of it sounded biblical but I was uneasy about it, knowing that it also sounded very New Age. Satan likes to take God's Word and mix in worldly ideas, and call it something new and
mysterious. I think most Christians will recognize this, though.
Posted by: Laurie | February 21, 2007 at 03:53 PM