Transcription
If you feel overlooked, like everyone else is getting their moment except you, I need you to hear this. You are not being rejected, you're being protected. And whilst it might be hard to hear, I'm going to tell you three reasons why God might be hiding you right now and why getting your prayers answered today could actually be more dangerous for you than you think.
Hello, beautiful people. I hope that you are all doing well. Today we are getting so for real because listen sis, I've been there in that awkward season when you are waiting for God to answer your prayers, when you're waiting to see the things you've put on your vision board manifest in your life. And whilst you wait, you start to see that everybody else seems to be getting blessed. And in those moments, it can start to feel like, God, what's actually going on? Why haven't you given me the thing that I've been waiting on? And waiting can be difficult. No matter how long you've waited for, when your heart is long for something, when you've been working hard towards something and it hasn't manifested in your life, it can be one of the most frustrating seasons in your life. Even if you understand the principle of patience, you know, the importance of the waiting season, it doesn't stop the fact that it can start to make you feel overlooked.
I mean, think about how you feel when you open up Instagram and you see somebody has posted, "I just bought my house" or "I just got this promotion" or "I just got proposed to" or "I just did XYZ," right? Or when you open up LinkedIn, oh LinkedIn, right? And you see someone's gotten the promotion or they've hit a milestone in their business and you're starting to think, "Am I bred? Like, what's actually going on?" You might start to think, "Am I behind?" And I know sometimes we talk about how destructive comparison is, but we can all fall into the trap. And sometimes beneath what's going on in that moment of comparison isn't necessarily jealousy. Sometimes it's the deep insecurity that makes you ask, "God, when is it going to be my turn? Is it ever going to be my turn?" You start to ask yourself questions. "Am I good enough? Do I deserve this thing? Am I not doing enough?" And that can be deeply troubling.
However, I really want us to explore what God might be doing in those moments when we aren't the one in the spotlight, when we aren't the one being clapped for. What is he doing in us and for us that we might be ignoring? And these three Ps should help you navigate this season with a bit more compassion towards yourself and wisdom as you prepare for what God is doing for you. And in a few minutes, I am going to share exactly how you can tell that you are coming out of your hiding season. But before we get into that, we have to get into the first thing God might be doing in you in this season. And that one is pruning.
Personally, this can sometimes be the hardest pill to swallow. I recently had this Bible verse pop up on my phone, which was that God prunes us so that we can bear more fruit. And to put it simply, pruning is where, you know, an agriculturalist will cut away at a plant so that it can prepare itself to be fruitful to whether it be oranges or apples or whatever. They'll cut away some branches that might be dead or might be withering away and it creates space for new things to bloom and come in. And in that scripture, it's telling us that the same thing happens to us that God cuts away things in us, in our hearts, and in our lives to prepare room for what it is we are asking him to do. And it made me think about how sometimes in our lives, it's not the things that we think will be pruned that get pruned. Sometimes in the pruning process, the things that you don't even notice are there need to be cut away.
I think a lot of us are comfortable with this idea that, hey, if I'm going to become who God wants me to be and do what he's called me to do, then I need to get rid of some toxic friends or I need to overcome some habits which I know are not helping me. But also sometimes in the pruning process, God looks at your heart and sees things that you don't even see. For example, your need for validation. Sometimes when you are being hidden, God is killing that need for applause in you. That feeling that you have when other people are being celebrated and you're not. God wants to kill that. God wants to kill that need for people's applause. I spoke about this in a recent video, but I said, "If you live by people's applause, you will die by their criticism." And one thing that I appreciate about God is he doesn't want you living on a constant cycle of validation. Validation is intoxicating. When people love you, are celebrating you, are cheering for you, it gets to your head. You know, you're like, "I'm liking this." You're happy and other people are happy with you. But the problem is when we become overly dependent on that validation, on that celebration, before we can feel content with our lives, before we can see what God is doing. You should not use other people's applause as a measure of whether you are blessed. Because sometimes what God is doing in your life is not obvious, nor is it glamorous to other people who are viewing your life from the outside. But what God is doing is still worth much more than any person's applause.
I remember back in 2021 when I ran my hair company and I had just been featured in an article on Forbes. Can you imagine? I was gassed. But at the same time, there was this feeling of deep burnout when it came to my business. I could sense inside of me that this isn't what I was meant to be doing anymore in this season. And it was really tough for me to swallow because people were clapping and they were applauding and they were like, "Yeah, this is amazing. This is a massive milestone. I mean, what entrepreneur doesn't want to be in Forbes, right?" However, I decided to leave my business just a couple months after that. And in that time, I realized, dang, nobody is clapping for this. Nobody understands why I would leave this business at its peak. When I left my business or when I decided to hit pause on my beauty company, that was the highest revenue-generating year we had had in our three-year run. And I remember in that season after leaving, even though I knew it's what God wanted for me, it felt like I was going from this pinnacle of being seen as an entrepreneur and now stepping back into the shadows and feeling like, God, it feels like I'm going backwards and it feels like other people are moving forward. And I remember I'd go on Instagram, I'd go on LinkedIn, and I would start to see people in my network hit several business milestones that honestly, when I was running my hair company, I used to dream of. And I'd be lying if I didn't say that. In those moments, sometimes I would ask myself, "God, why did you do this to me? Why am I taking this rogue, interesting detour in my business entrepreneurial journey?" But in that moment, I learned a very deep lesson, which was that God's process for me was worth way more than people's approval of me. What God was doing in me was taking me on a detour so that I could find purpose. What God was doing for me in that season was pruning away every bit of me that needed other people's validation. Because if you don't have people's validation, is it going to stop you from doing what you know you've been called to do in private? Sometimes it's so easy to forget that in those seasons where maybe your performance isn't public, God is still working on you in private. And there are things that you have to do, things that you have to be obedient towards that people will actually never see.
Let's talk about it. This weight loss journey that I'm on. Sometimes I'd be like, "God, what is the point?" Right? But sometimes I think I dishonor the process because people aren't going to be there clapping for me when I finish my workout at the gym, you know? People aren't going to be there cheering and putting their champagne emojis. I love the champagne emoji. But they're not going to be putting their champagne emoji when I finish my 10,000 steps, right? That is a purely me versus me kind of process. And sometimes in those kinds of processes, what God is making you do is work without other people's applause. Work simply for the satisfaction of him. Work simply for your own satisfaction and your own validation. And that is something that builds up your confidence. One thing that you develop in the season of obscurity is confidence. There is a confidence in who you are outside of other people's opinions of you. Whether they be good or bad, there is a deep, deep self-awareness and self-acceptance that comes by knowing who you are even if you don't have the things that you want yet. And I think the pruning season is so beautiful because sometimes it's God's mercy. Sometimes it's God saying, "Hey, I know you want to be fruitful in this way. I know you want to see these kind of results in your businesses, these kind of results in your career, these kind of results in your relationships or in your friendships, but you are not ready for it yet. So, let me strip away all the parts of you that are incompatible with the results that you want to see. Let me take away everything that would stop you from truly flourishing."
One thing that I love is in the parable of the sower, it talks about how, you know, certain seeds were cast sewn, sorry, certain seeds were sown into some ground. And when it was sown into the ground, it actually couldn't flourish because there were weeds. It was growing amongst things that would come and choke it out. And when I think of pruning, I think about how good God is that he takes away those weeds first before he even plants the seed so that the ground that that seed is being sown into can actually bear much fruit, can actually be fruitful. And for us, we can see that pruning season as God dealing really harshly with us or us failing compared to other people, us being behind compared to other people. But one thing about pruning is it's preparation for you to be catapulted forward. And that brings me to my second point.
The hidden season is when we prepare and we need preparation. I know we've heard about the need for preparation, the importance of process. But I want to highlight this from a different angle for you. I think God is giving you this season of obscurity or being hidden so that you can prepare so that when you get the blessing, when you get the answer to your prayers, you do not fumble the bag. Listen, you need to be able to carry the weight of the responsibility that comes with your answered prayers. We have glamorized the idea of answered prayers so much. We think answered prayers, yay, again, that I'm going to be celebrated. Oh, everyone's going to celebrate with me for with my breakthrough, you know? But honestly, answered prayers come with responsibility, right? I remember when I got engaged and I thought, "Oh my gosh, it's going to be absolutely amazing." And it was, to be fair, right? But when I got engaged, after my proposal and all the, you know, the comments and stuff died down, what was I left with? Responsibility. The responsibility of helping to plan a wedding, buying a home, going to marriage counseling. Responsibility is literally what answered prayers look like. Maybe that's how answered prayers are is spelled R-E-S-P-O-N-S-I-B-I-L-I-T-Y. Okay? Because you have to now steward the thing that you have been given. And stewardship is for those who have prepared, right? Think about when you have a baby. What do you spend nine months doing? Preparing. You spend nine months preparing because you know something is coming. And this is what that season of obscurity does for you. It reminds you that something is coming, so you need to get prepared so you can handle it. How diligent have you been about your preparation? And maybe the quote-unquote delay that you are expecting, is God being merciful and kind to you enough to say, "Hey, I'm going to give you a little bit more time to prepare, to prepare adequately." We can spend time waiting, just twiddling our thumbs. But actually, there are things that we can be doing in all areas of life to get ourselves more prepared to become the person who can steward the thing that we are asking God for. And I think the brilliance of this is sometimes we forget that opportunities in our lives only come about once and if we fumble it, it will take years and years and years before it comes back.
An example that I can give you here is the story of David and Goliath. Many of us know it, right? David, the boy who slings down a whole giant. But one thing we must remember is that David only had one shot to take Goliath down. And so even as he was waiting to become king of Israel, he was actually tending to sheep. And in that season of obscurity, when he was tending to sheep in the wilderness where nobody would really notice him, maybe even his own siblings forgot that he was there. He was just this little shepherd boy. God gave him the opportunity in that season of being hidden to practice his slingshot skills. Okay? To practice his ability to hit enemies on target. And that was so that when his opportunity came, he didn't fumble because he had had practice and preparation. Preparation happens in the seasons where nobody is watching. I often think about how athletes spend most of their time practicing for a very, very short game. And when they practice, there aren't that many people in the stands. There aren't people who are looking at them thinking, "Yeah, you got that shot in practice." No, they practice so that when the crowd is there, they can make the shot. But the absence of the crowd during practice, the absence of the celebration during practice doesn't stop them from showing up for practice. You have to show up for your practice. You need to show up and prepare. You need to be doing your due diligence in this season of obscurity so that when your time comes for manifestation or your time comes to really, you know, shine, you are actually ready. And that's why I think this third point really is important.
Sometimes being hidden is for your own protection. Let me tell you some big sis truths. Okay. I have learned over time, whether it be in business, relationships, or whatever, that sometimes when you show up to the moment of you really making it through your breakthrough and you are underprepared, you not only ruin your reputation, you can also miss your window of opportunity and it can take a long time for it to come back. So sometimes when God is keeping you hidden and he's keeping you in a season where, listen, it's not your time yet. I know everyone else is entering into their stuff, but take your mind off of whether they are ready, whether they deserved it, and start thinking about you. Maybe God wants you to be in a place where you are so prepared, you have been so pruned that once your fruit starts coming in, once your prayers start being answered, once you start, you know, manifesting all the things that you want in your life, you won't mess it up and actually, you won't lose it. And I think one of the perfect warnings for this is actually the story of the prodigal son. One of my favorite stories because I think it teaches us a lot about life. What we have here is a young man who asks his father if he can receive his inheritance early and reluctantly his father obliges and gives it to him and the prodigal son runs away from home and he really spends all his inheritance. He's having a great old time but what he doesn't realize is he's received it too early before he can actually handle stewarding it. And so whilst the prodigal son is out there having fun, partying with loads of people, he quickly runs out of money and he starts getting very stressed out. Not only do people then abandon him, he then has to go and start feeding pigs. Even though he actually was raised by a really wealthy father, his life goes from 100 to zero simply because he received his blessing prematurely. Getting your prayers answered prematurely often leads to you losing it quickly. If you are not built up to carry the weight of your calling, you will crumble under the pressure and only God knows how long it will take you to recover. We are going to face many opportunities in our lives that we cannot afford to mess up. And if you do not take your time to be prepared, you are going to mess up those moments that God is giving you and those windows of opportunity don't roll around all the time. I don't know how much I need to emphasize that. I know every day is a new opportunity to start again, but you don't want to keep starting from scratch because it's going to waste years of your life. So maybe in this hidden season, God is allowing you to prepare so that when the window of opportunity opens for you, you're ready to jump through it.
And so I just want to remind you that once God has pruned you and prepared you and allowed you to be protected in this hiding season, he's going to reveal that you are ready to enter into your season of answered prayers when your character can handle the blessing that is coming. We can't predict all the things that lie ahead of us in the future. But we can become the type of person who can handle it. The type of person who carries the wisdom, the discipline, the diligence, the character to be able to step into future seasons and opportunities and handle the things that are thrown at us. And I'll tell you something that most people don't want to tell you. Not everybody goes through this process. Not everybody allows themselves to actually go through God's process of pruning and preparation. And that's why they often miss out on exactly what God has called them to carry. That's why they often mess up when it is their time to shine. And I don't want you or I to have short-lived blessings. I want us to be prepared for what is coming ahead of us so that we can not only sustain it but also we can thrive in it. And I'm not telling you that this guarantees that your life will be perfect. Sometimes you go through seasons of having to be pruned again and having to be prepared again. Sometimes the hiding season isn't just one season in your life. Sometimes it happens in different chapters. But the beautiful thing about it is you can always sense that it's God preparing you for something that is coming. And the people who are prepared for what is coming are the people who embrace becoming. They are the people who become more obsessed with becoming the person who can steward the blessing. And if you shift your attention to, "Okay, you know what, God, I am still waiting. I am watching everybody get theirs before I get mine. But I'm going to tell myself and I'm going to reframe my thinking to be, maybe you are giving me more time to prepare so that when mine comes, I can maintain it. I can steward it. It can thrive under my care and I can actually be the person you've called me to be and do the things that you've called me to do in on the main stage without fear of messing up." And that is the protection of being hidden.
So, if this video has helped to reframe your thinking about your hidden season just a little bit, then comment down below. "I'm being protected." Okay? I also want to hear your thoughts on this topic. But I hope that I see you very, very soon. And until then, stay beautiful and stay blessed. Ma.