Our Pastor recently spoke about the beatitudes and included the portion right afterwards where Jesus talks about not “hiding our light under a basket”. It got me to thinking about the many ways and places that we as people hide who we are, and in the process minimize God’s light that shows through us.

     All of us have those places where we keep our true identities hidden.  We are afraid of being real before others. Perhaps its because we are unwilling to risk the ridicule or judgment of others.  Maybe we want others to think only good of us, or to come across as having it all together.  Whatever the reason or reasons, conscious or unconscious there are deep places within us that we don’t expose.  By keeping our true selves in those secret places, we are not allowing the Work of the Spirit to shine his full light in us and through us.  People are not able to see the full glory or shekinah of God radiating out from us.

     God through our Lord Jesus Christ and by His Spirit has set us free and called us to live life to the full.  To let his light shine through us before the world in the here and now.  His Spirit is at work in us and is shaping us to be like the person of Jesus, and we need to yield ourselves to that process.  Taking steps out of hiding and into His light.  This process looks different for all of us and occurs in different ways and times by our yeilding and God’s grace and mercy.  The work is a part of God’s sanctification on our lives and by His power, we need only to notice those promtings and to yield.

     Have you noticed where you hide? Trust and yield.  Move into that place of freedom and life as God’s beloved.