As I sat in church, God whispered, “Stop hiding.”

About a month or so ago, I intentionally backed away from social media. Posting felt pointless. Honestly, who truly cares about my daily activities or my deep thought of the day? I’m not that interesting. My life isn’t filled with adventure; I rarely leave my house.

Except for random emails from email lists I’ve subscribed to or spam from places that somehow got my address from the cyber world, my phone typically lies beside me with a dark screen. Texting has almost stopped, and I silenced calls from anyone other than those whose phone numbers are in my contacts.

I stopped consistently blogging. I began to believe the lie that I didn’t have much to say. Those who know me are probably laughing because I always have something to say.

I know the voices telling me that what I had been sharing didn’t contribute much to society and that I don’t matter in the big scheme of things were not coming from God. Instead, they were discouragements from the enemy in a desperate attempt to keep me quiet.

After a quick self-evaluation, I replied, “Lord, you’re right. I have been hiding.”

Blending In

It’s been easy to blend into the background. There aren’t many expectations there. When you go dark, people tend to move on. We get busy with our lives, turn our attention to the next intriguing story, and assume those who choose to retreat don’t want to be bothered. Sure, we think about them occasionally and wonder what happened to them, but we can only spend so much time trying to engage them. It boils down to this, the more time we spend sitting on the sidelines, the less others notice us, and the easier life feels.

Even though retreating can be a place of peace, and there are times when taking a breather is necessary for our well-being, we become ineffective for the Kingdom when we stay there too long. If we’re hiding, we’re not sharing our God story—the story He specifically gave us to share.

Satan loves that! It’s to his benefit. If we’re not out there sharing the goodness of God and the love of Jesus with others, then he doesn’t have to worry about us. He understands God’s purpose for our individual testimonies. So to him, our silence is golden. (Ephesians 4:27)

Although God knows why I’ve been hiding, I’m thankful He called me out and won’t allow me to stay tucked away.

Are You Hiding, Too?

After the Lord told me to stop hiding, He gave me the assignment to share the same message with a specific friend. He said, “She’s been hiding, too.”

At first, I was a bit relieved to know I wasn’t alone on my retreat. But I immediately realized neither she nor I should be taking a sabbatical from our missions. So I waited for her in the lobby, where I shared God’s message.

After the conversation with my friend, I felt the Spirit nudging me to share these thoughts with you. I’d venture to guess that others have also retreated from the world, and I’m here to urge you to stop hiding.

Ignore those voices telling you you’re not good enough. God didn’t ask you to be good enough; He asked you to be willing. (2 Corinthians 12:9-10)

Shut out the thoughts that say your story doesn’t matter. God gave your story to share. He knows it matters to others, especially those facing the same struggles. (2 Corinthians 1:4)

Stop believing you can’t make a difference. The Lord blessed you with another day to show someone His love. Find that someone and help change their life. You do make a difference in the world. (John 4; John 4:28-30)

Trust the Spirit to guide you. Lean into the power He has given you. (Acts1:8)

As believers in Christ, we’re on a mission (John 20:21), and we can’t complete that mission until we stop hiding from it. So what do you say we come out of our secret places and get back to our God-given assignments? (Isaiah 6:8)

Let’s give the enemy something to worry about! (Romans 16:20)