When I was younger, I thought I was the invisible girl.  Sure I had a ton of friends, but nobody actually knew all about our home life, our family life.  To everyone else it appeared normal and happy.  As I grew up, I carried this cloak of invisibility with me.  I never thought my bad choices or horrible decisions affected anyone much except for me.  I’ve long since learned, that there are way more people watching than you realize and they choices you make affect people in a very profound way.

For instance, a lady in our church tells the story of a coworker who she barely knew.  One day this woman came up to our girl and told her she was watching “Jane”. She said that “Jane” had something in her life that she wanted and asked what was different about her.  Of course this led to witnessing and it was a fabulous story. But the point is – she never even knew this other woman was paying attention to how she conducted herself.

In an earlier blog, I posted about letting the unsaved see that the Christian life is not all perfect and happily ever after… yet.  How they need to see that we still have issues and problems just like everyone else so we don’t set them up for failure. We need to let them see just how to deal with problems as a Christian would and how different it actually is from what the world hands out to them as so-called advice.

“Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we received mercy, we do not lose heart, ² but we have renounced the things hidden because of shame, not walking in craftiness or adulterating the word of God, but by the manifestation of truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. 2 Corinthians 4:1-2

This verse specifically talks about things hidden in shame.  So why do we, then, continue to keep things hidden and shameful?  We have been forgiven and cleansed by Jesus’ precious blood!  The former things have been forgiven!  Are we more ashamed of what has happened in the past by our own bad choices, or walking in shame because of something that was done to us?  I’m here to declare to you that Jesus’ sacrifice was bigger and bolder and stronger than our fear to speak the truth in love!

Listen, Ladies, there is no longer a need – no longer and issue, no longer any reason to fear sharing our stories.  It is your TESTIMONY!  It is what God has repaired, what Jesus died for, what you are now on the other side of!  And you never know how your story can affect others for Jesus or even the opposite is true, against Jesus.  So let’s no longer walk in the shame and blame ourselves – let’s be transparent when it’s needed and bring many others to Jesus!  Jesus moved that huge boulder of ours right on out of our way!

See, it’s not just about others getting freed by Jesus, it’s also about YOU getting freed from your pain and shame. It’s about breaking free of those chains in your own life and moving forward in God’s grace and love.  How else can we bring others to this freedom if we aren’t living in it ourselves!

So now is the time to stop being secretive – being ashamed to tell our story – being afraid someone will judge us.  The only judge that matters is God our Father who loves us dearly and doesn’t want for any of us to be bound up and hidden.  Start today by asking Jesus to free you up, to change your mindset about the things of the past.  He already knows all of it, and He’s not ashamed of you!  Move forward in grace, freedom and God’s spectacular brand of love!