Happy New Year! I pray you all had a wonderful and joyous Christmas and New Years! This is the time of year when most of us reflect on the past year and think about what the new year will bring. In my quiet time with God last week I asked Him for my "word" for this new year. Last year the word was discipline and that I needed to focus on areas of my life that were not as disciplined as they needed to be. I don't think I quite mastered it in all areas, but there was definitely forward progress made in 2013.
What I heard God telling me for this year is this:
It's time to come out of hiding.
Uh oh. As the days have passed this phrase has been revealed into deeper meaning. I trust God will continue to give me more information, but just today He showed me how much of my life has been spent making comparisons. How many times have I read someone's writing and thought, "I wish I could write like her/him." Or heard someone sing and thought, "If only I could sing like THAT, then I would join the choir!" And of course what is probably the most common among women, "If I looked like that.....then I would......"
What happens when we live our lives with this thought process is we bury our true selves. We neglect the talents God has given to us because they don't look like what we see in someone else. Our voice sounds different because God wants to use us to make a different sound. He is a creative God! He loves diversity and took time on each and every one of us to make us look, write, and sound exactly as He determined we should look, write, and sound.
God is waiting for you to come out of hiding. No matter what you have done, God still wants a relationship with you. I have made many mistakes in the past and I'm sure to make more in the future. When we fail, satan whispers to us how shameful we should feel. Depending on the severity of the fall, we can believe his lies. Instead of running to Abba asking for forgiveness, we run from Him. We are no different than Adam and Eve.
"Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and they hid themselves from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. So the Lord God called out to the man and said to him, "Where are you?" And he said, "I heard You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid." Then He asked, " Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat from the tree that I had commanded you not to eat from?" Genesis 3:8-11
How often has this been our story? We do something God instructed was not in our best interest and so we hide when we hear Him approaching. When Adam said he was naked, God immediately knew what had been done. When we go into hiding because we think we aren't "enough," God asks, "Who told you that?" If the only opinion that matters in our lives is the opinion of God, then we have no reason to hide. If we are listening to His voice and instruction, then why do we fear?
I can't speak for you, but I know for me I've lived the majority of my life in hiding based on the fear of what someone will think. What if I write something that makes people mad. What if I offend someone? What if I sing and people laugh at me? What if I speak and I stumble over the words? But what if I live my whole life running from the very thing I was created to do all because I'm living in fear of the opinion of others? What if every time I think I can't do something because of _______(insert perceived inadequacy here), God is in Heaven asking, "Who told you that?"
Where are you hiding? Is God walking in the garden looking for you, but because of satan's lies or your failures, you are hiding in the trees? I will be praying for you to come out of hiding and step into the purpose for which you were created. Let today be the end of believing the lies.
