As God has been showing me the way my past pains have molded me, I have come to realize that those hurts can cause us to hide and discount our actions. Some hide out of fear of being rejected and hurt, while others hide simply because there has never been someone to encourage and draw out their true identity. Recently, God has shown me that in relationships, we bring value. I am not talking about your actions, although those are beautiful and add to all relationships, but I am talking about you as a person. God has shown me that I bring value in relationships even when I do not see the fruit of the value I bring. I am sharing this because in my past, I have questioned myself because of the way others have treated me in a way that was contrary to what God had said about me. I have triple checked myself and have allowed others to determine the value I brought because many rejected me time and time again. Without me even realizing it, I allowed my mindset to be “is this right or wrong?” The problem with that is my identity is constantly in question when it should be firm in all circumstances. We bring value into relationships because we have God’s nature and we are completely His. When we hide ourselves from the possibility of hurt, we are also hiding ourselves from the possibility of being loved. We are hiding ourselves from being led by the Holy Spirit and being completely natural. We stop before even acting on a whim because we are scared to feel that familiar pain we are so used to. I want to encourage you to stop hiding from what God is showing you and embrace the unknown. He is not going to let you fall. God has already approved the thoughts He has placed inside of you. He has already approved the big dreams of writing a book or starting a business. As long as it is with the pure intention of love, why not come out of hiding and be the blessing He wants you to be? There is so much glory that God will get when we allow ourselves to be fully known and seen by the world. His ministry is inside of us, waiting to be released into the form of hearts transformed forever. That’s the power that is inside of us. That’s the confidence that we can have as we step out in faith with God grinning at our boldness. There is no rejection or fear in God’s eyes. There is no more hiding because in hiding our light, we are not reaching the full potential of what God has in store. There is a fullness when we are open handed to go and do whatever God wants us to do. Let’s be bold together and come out of hiding, where the world will be set on fire by God’s overwhelming love. What is He calling you to do out of the hiding?
“Love never brings fear, for fear is always related to punishment. But love’s perfection drives the fear of punishment far from our hearts. Whoever walks constantly afraid of punishment has not reached love’s perfection.”
1 John 4:18 TPT