I’ve been thinking a lot about the word “hiddenness” lately…

There is a kind of “hiddenness” that we sometimes take ourselves into…and there could be many different reasons we do this.

…But there is another kind of “hiddenness” that our Heavenly Father takes us into sometimes… and it’s the beautiful, transformative, healing kind. ✨

Our ways of “hiddenness” are unhealthy and dangerous…a sort of “self-protectiveness” or even a “self-destructive” kind of shutdown, perhaps…

The kind of “hiding” we take ourselves into is unnecessary and uncalled for.

But a “hiddenness” that God takes us into, for a season, is healthy, and it’s nourishing—necessary and safe.

God does His most transformative work in the “hidden” places.

“Just as you cannot understand the path of the wind or the mystery of a tiny baby growing in its mother’s womb, so you cannot understand the activity of God, who does all things.”—Ecclesiastes 11:5

I went through many seasons of my life, living within a “self-induced hiddenness.”

I hid myself away, and in an unhealthy way. ?

God helped me to overcome that!

But now I’ve suddenly found myself in a season that feels like God is holding me in a “hidden place” with Him in many ways—a hidden place that He has prepared for me to step into with Him for a short “learning” season.

You might say,

“Um… you write a daily blog that anyone can see. How is that ‘hidden’?”

Well, it’s very hard for me to explain or express, to be very honest. It’s almost like this “hidden place” is a very deep place within me that might not even be noticed on the surface, but it’s a place that I experience, and I do also see it in the things God uses to give me a deeper understanding that happen in the natural. It’s a place where God maybe says, “No, not yet…” or “No, not yet, we need to work on some things, You and I.”

It’s the place where we learn to live peacefully before an “audience of One.”

It’s the place where we’re shaped to become a person that no amount of adoration or rejection can alter or shake.

It’s a place where we deal with any pride, or comparison within our hearts…or the need to be affirmed or approved of.

Have you ever felt Him bring you into that place with Him?

No, I’m not becoming a Monk. haha (Though there have been many times in my life that I desired to.)

And through all of this little season I’ve found myself in, He’s still leading me to write on here every morning—but He’s teaching me, I think, to be content, whether He wants it written simply for Him, or whether He chooses to use these words to touch others who see it and read it.

There’s a danger in wanting to remain “safely unseen”…and there’s just as much of a danger in “wanting to be seen”…for the wrong reasons…with the wrong motive.

For the last couple of years I’ve felt like the Lord was constantly pushing me out into the open, out into the world, out into the light of day…. to be “seen” in a more transparent way, when I really, really didn’t want to be seen, because honestly, I was afraid and terrified of being seen. And He really had to nudge me out there to get me to go.

And together we journeyed that territory together.

Together, He helped me to overcome and have victory!

I no longer wanted to hide myself away anymore. ☀️

But then the lesson changed… and there are some different kinds of lessons He’s wanting me to learn in this different kind of season.

The lessons in the place of “hidden” with Him, are far different than the lessons I’ve ever learned with Him before.

He knows what we need, because there’s no hiding anything about ourselves from Him.

He knows who we are, through and through. ?

So I’m learning to be content in this “holding place” season I’ve found myself in… I don’t know how long He will keep me here, I don’t think it will be a long season. It’s very possible it may almost be over…

But I’m learning to ask Him, “What’s the lesson, Father? Help me to grasp it. Help me to get it. Thank You for the lesson, Father. You know what is necessary and needed.”

Have you ever noticed how it’s like God is either “nudging us out” or “holding us back” but in all of it, He’s always taking us forward. ?

When we’re hidden away with Him, we’re always within His revealing, healing, pure light.

We’re not being pulled into the deep darkness, as when we hide ourselves away.

I’ll leave you with a song that I came across a few weeks ago that I love…it’s called, “Butterfly” by Josh Garrels.

Father, I trust You with wherever You take me, no matter what it might seem like on the surface, no matter how it makes me feel in my emotions at times, no matter if I don’t understand what You’re up to… I trust You. ?✍?☀️

-Heather ?