Freedom doesn't stay quiet for long. That's the turn in Chapter Three, and it comes with a question most of us would rather not ask: where am I hiding what He did for me?
The Misconception: A Private Faith Is a Safe Faith
Here's how it usually works. In private, you're honest with God. You pray, you read, you sing. Then you walk out the door and a joke gets laughed along with, a conversation gets steered around, and a faith gets kept strictly between you and Him because that feels safer.
We call it respect. We call it maturity. Often, it's just fear with good manners.
You didn't deny Him with words. You did it with silence. And silence is easy to defend.
A Confession Set to Music
"Hallelujah" by Lee Vasi starts with a God who knows him: who saw him at the bottom of his own misery, and who saved him when the voices in his head had him convinced he was the monster. It names a love that was sacrificed to defeat the darkness. Then the song gets personal and honest. He was away for a while. He knew God, but wouldn't admit it. He lived one way in public and poured out his heart in private.
And then the turn: now he's praising in public. Whatever sin he carried, God is above it. God redeemed him and showed him the reason. And the song ends, simply, with someone calling on the Lord, asking for forgiveness, asking for what's best.
That's the shape of the chapter. Private honesty turns into public praise.
Two Men Who Came Out of Hiding
John 19 shows two men doing exactly this. Joseph of Arimathea was "a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jews." Nicodemus had come to Jesus "at night" back in John 3. Both were hidden believers. And then the cross happened. The disciples ran. The crowd walked away. And these two men, the quiet ones, walked into Pilate's presence in broad daylight and asked for the body of Jesus.
Fear had kept them quiet. Love brought them out.
Jesus said in Matthew 10:32, "Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven." That isn't a threat. It's an invitation to the kind of faith that doesn't need a hiding place.
And if you've already denied Him, hear this: Peter did it three times, out loud, to people's faces. Jesus found him on a beach and gave him his job back.
Try This Today
Do one small, visible thing today where someone could see you belong to Jesus. Pray before a meal in public. Mention something you read. Share a song. Small is fine. Visible is the point.
This is Chapter Three of THERE'S MORE. Tomorrow: why lukewarm isn't safe. It's just slow.
🎧 Spotify | 🍎 Apple Music
