Good morning fellow travelers attempting to make space for God! I love Mondays when I begin to unpack what has been on my heart during the past week, and I have been focused on the question, ” Why do we sometimes hide our light?” Now let me explain… This comes from a quote that I love:

Our deepest fear is not that we are weak. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others. ~ Marianne Williamson

So I ask you a question, are you fearful of what God has called you to do? Are you afraid to shine brightly using your talents, gifts and brain that God has given you? These are valid questions and for some of us this is a call to change course, to come out of hiding and begin your journey to your God-given purpose. For others it may be that you are on course with following your dreams, but you don’t want to be proud of what you are accomplishing, so you shrink back so others won’t think you think too much of yourself… or you hold back because you are afraid of what might be next.

This post is primarily for women written by a woman, someone who used to be an official people-pleaser who now is fearless for God. As a young woman I was told I could never follow my dream of being a Bible teacher and leader. Even more significantly, that I could not possibly bring together different denominations to study the Word together; that no one will ever agree on anything and it will be a big mistake to even try.  And by the way… have you forgotten that you are a woman? Here is the deal. There will always be people who try to throw cold water on your dreams, but you must listen to only one voice and that is the voice of the Great Shepherd. If you listen to all the other voices you will at best get side tracked or at worst give up. And I did not give up. Why? Because I learned to spend more time listening to my Shepherd’s voice than all the others. I made space for my time with Him in the Word and prayer and through journaling what I was hearing.

You are a threat to the enemy when you shine brightly for Jesus and you are a threat to the world when you succeed. There, I said it. Thats just the truth and it hurts. But some people do not want you to succeed because if you succeed there is a warped sense that if you do they won’t.

Jesus had three special friends and 12 other friends in his next layer of friends. He taught them as he went about his daily business of teaching scripture, healing the sick, and delivering people from bondage into freedom. Jesus did not apologize to them for what He was doing, he did this because He knew exactly who He was and what He was called to do. Jesus knew His purpose as the Son of God to liberate humanity, and although the voices, such as Peter, said “no, don’t do it”, the voice of His Father said “Go.”

Today, think about your dreams. Ask the Lord for the next step in your journey. Listen to His voice. It’s time to shine.