Sharing Your Story: How to Know God Is Prompting You

Can I ask you something? Have you ever felt that little nudge to speak up, and at the exact same time you wanted to hide under a blanket?

Sharing your story can feel like that. Part holy and part terrifying. One minute you’re thinking, “I should tell someone what God did,” and the next minute you’re thinking, “But what if I say it wrong?”

I’ve been there. And I’ve learned something I want to say gently but clearly. Sharing your story is not the same thing as telling everything to everyone. Discernment matters. Timing matters. And peace matters too.

So let’s talk about it like friends. How do you know if God is prompting you to share? And how do you do it with wisdom, not pressure?

Sometimes we picture sharing your story like a stage moment. Microphone. Tears. Big ending.

But a lot of the time, it’s way smaller than that. It can be a quiet conversation across a coffee table. It can be one sentence in a support group. It can be saying, “Here’s where God met me,” without laying out every detail.

Ask yourself what God is highlighting, not what you can explain

Here’s the thing. When God prompts me toward sharing your story, it often feels like He’s highlighting one piece of it.

Not the whole timeline. Not every chapter. Just the part that carries hope for someone else.

I’ve had to learn that being faithful doesn’t mean being frantic. It doesn’t mean oversharing. It means obedience. And sometimes obedience looks like speaking, and sometimes it looks like waiting.

A simple boundary that has helped me

When I’m deciding about sharing your story, I come back to this question.

Has this person earned a front row seat to my life?

That sounds blunt, but it’s loving. You can be openhearted and still have boundaries.

What does God’s prompting feel like in real life?

Let me tell you about something that’s happened in my own life. I’ve had moments where God put a calling on my heart, and my first response was basically, “Are You sure?”

I remember sitting on the couch next to my husband and crying because the nudge felt so far outside my comfort zone. I felt unqualified. I felt nervous. And yet, deep down, I knew God was inviting me into something I couldn’t manufacture on my own.

That’s one of the ways sharing your story often starts. Not with confidence. With a nudge.

Prompting often comes with peace, even when you’re nervous

I want to say this carefully. Peace doesn’t always mean you feel calm in your body.

You can have shaky hands and still have peace in your spirit. You can feel nervous and still sense, “This is the next right step.”

In one of our conversations, what stood out to me was that surrender feels a lot like peace, even if you’re nervous. That has been true for me too.

Prompting usually isn’t pressure

God’s invitation is steady. Not frantic.

Pressure sounds like, “Do it now or you missed it.”

But the Holy Spirit’s leading is more like, “I’m with you. Take the next step.” Sometimes that next step is speaking. Sometimes it’s healing a little more in private first.

This is the question underneath the question, right?

Because most of us can feel the desire to share. The harder part is knowing the timing.

Look at the “wound” versus the “scar”

One of the most practical questions I ask is, “Does this still feel like a raw, open wound?”

If it does, you’re not failing. It may just mean God wants to meet you there first, gently, before you offer it to others.

I’ve learned that healing in secret often comes before speaking in public. And that’s not God withholding you. That’s God protecting you.

Use Galatians 5:25 as a simple filter

Galatians 5:25 (CSB) says, “If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.”

I love that phrase, keep in step. Not sprint ahead. Not lag behind. Step.

When it comes to sharing your story, this verse gives us permission to slow down and ask, “Holy Spirit, what is Your pace for me?” Sometimes the step is to share. Sometimes the step is to wait and get wise counsel. But we’re not guessing in the dark. We’re keeping in step.

These are questions I’ve come back to again and again when sharing your story feels complicated.

What does God want to communicate through my story?
Is my motivation to help others and glorify God, or just to relieve my guilt?
Does this person need the details, or just the hope?
Am I willing to trust God with the outcome?

These kinds of questions help bring clarity without making you spiral.

Okay. This one matters, because it’s real.

Sometimes sharing your story doesn’t get the response you hoped for. Sometimes people get quiet. Sometimes they change the subject. Sometimes they just do not know what to do with tenderness.

I’ve learned this the hard way. Vulnerability can backfire when people aren’t ready, don’t understand, or react from their own places.

Your job is obedience, not outcome

This has brought me so much freedom.

The obedience is yours. The outcome is God’s. When sharing your story, we’re not trying to control how people feel about it. We’re offering what God asked us to offer, with gentleness, and then releasing the rest.

Here are a few boundaries I’ve had to practice (and I’m still learning).

Be honest, but don’t overshare. Honor your healing process.
Not everyone has earned a front row seat to your whole story.
Release the outcome. God is present, even in awkward moments.
Create community with people who treat your story with care.

That’s not being closed off. That’s being wise.

If you’re waiting for a lightning bolt moment, you might be waiting a while.

Most of the time, sharing your story starts small. And that’s good news.

Try these three steps first

Tell your story to God in prayer first. Say it out loud. Let Him hold it.
Share with one trusted person (a friend, mentor, group leader), and see how it feels.
Ask God for opportunities, and trust Him to open doors and close them.

That kind of pace builds confidence without forcing anything.

A quick reminder if you feel “behind”

Some of us feel like we missed our moment. Like we waited too long.

But God’s timing is kind. I’ve seen seasons where it felt like a door closed, and later I realized it wasn’t “no.” It was “not quite.” God was still preparing me, arranging things behind the scenes, and protecting what needed protecting.

If that’s you, breathe. Sharing your story isn’t a race. It’s a step-by-step walk with Jesus.

I know the whisper that says, “My story won’t help anyone.”

But I’ve watched God use surrendered stories over and over. Not the perfect stories. The honest ones. The ones told with hope, not heaviness.

And sometimes, sharing your story is the exact thing that gives another woman permission to breathe again. To believe again. To say, “Me too.”

Our community is built one surrendered story at a time.

So if you feel the nudge today, you don’t have to force it. But you also don’t have to ignore it.

Just take the next step. Keep in step with the Spirit. And trust that God can handle the timing, the words, and the results.

Sharing Your Story: How to Know When God Is Prompting You