Come Out of Hiding

What is your biggest fear?  Where do you run to when you feel as if you have no where else to run?

In each and every heart, we long for home.  We long for a place where our soul can be completely well.  Yet, even when you go back home and sleep in your bed, your never satisfied.  We begin to idolize comfort and control for we want to feel at home but nothing on this earth satisfies.  Before long, we run into things we can't control.  Our anxiety and fear rages for we no longer can control everything.

This is where God is calling us out of hiding.  If we idolize control, we usually run away from intimacy.  Feelings can't be controlled and so therefore we don't trust others with our heart.

I don't trust others because if I do I feel that I'm out of control.  For once I trust them, they could hurt me or damage my heart.  That is a disaster.  Yet, if I'm hiding from people, then there is a pretty good chance that I'm hiding from God.  God told me last night that my heart needed to come out of hiding.  He had my mind and my soul, He had my love, but my trust and my heart was elsewhere.

I thought it was hard for me to trust because my heart was broken.  Although there has been many agents that have tried to break my heart, my heart is maybe just chipped.  Its still whole because I haven't let it feel.  I don't let many people in, because I feel out of control.  For once I give my cares to someone else, I have lost control.  I have lost control.  

Yet, God told me that I don't give my heart to others when I care about them, instead that He holds my heart and keeps it safe.  I don't have to worry about barricading it, or dropping it or letting it go astray.
So, it all goes down to trust.

Now, why I asked you your biggest fear, is it's a great way to find your idols as well as what your not trusting God with.  Fear comes from a lack of trust in God.

Last night, my friend talked about that God died on the cross so that we wouldn't have fear and shame. He died so that we could be free!!! Free from our fears and free from shame.   So why would we hold on to shame?  Why would we live in fear?  God really wants me to face my fears.  He has recently challenged a lot of my fears.  For example, I had a fear of change, so he put me on a pine cove team that traveled across the lower half of the U.S. where for 6 weeks, everything continuously changed.  I hate trying new things.  Not only was this new but I had people on my team who pushed me to try new foods and

experiences.

Fear can never help…it can only hold you back.

I repeat Fear can never help… it can only hold you back.

Yet sometimes, fear feels like your best friend.  Something you can grasp a little tighter when you have to do something out of your comfort zone.

Yet, I ask if you were to reach the end of your life and saw that you remained in your comfort zone your whole life, how would you feel?

We are called to have a trust without borders, a faith that walks on water.

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."  Hebrews 12: 1-2

Let us throw off fear,  I know it's been entangling me.  It's hindered me from great experiences.  It's crazy how much food I've never tried, and how many roller coasters I've never ridden.  How many places I haven't been.  How many sleepless nights I've had.  How many days that have been filled with fear and anxiety, when they could have been filled with love and joy.  

So get tired of it!!! Lets get rid of it with God's help.  Yet first we have to trust God and give him everything and then come out of hiding and run to him.  Listen to the song "Out of Hiding" by Steffany Gretzinger. 

Yet the good thing is our faith is not our own, Jesus is the perfecter of it.  So let him perfect your faith.  We don't have to conquer our fear on our own, Jesus Christ perfects us.  

So, in short,  come out of hiding and run into his arms.