Four steps to guide you toward walking out your purpose despite your fears.
- Awareness. The First step in moving towards your purpose is to become aware of what your true fears are and understand where they are coming from. For many people they are frozen in a place of inaction for reasons unknown to themselves. Identify the root of the fear in order to grab hold and remove it from your mindset. How can you fight a fear you do not truly see? This also requires we get honest with ourselves, our TRUE selves and that takes some self-awareness. Self-awareness is hard to develop because we are so immersed in our experience of life and our feelings we lose track of the thoughts that drive those feelings. Fear ultimately is JUST a feeling. Put it in it’s place and remember like all feelings they are just indicators to something going on within us. Like when we are tired we need sleep, when we are hungry we need food, when we are lonely we need social connection. When we are afraid we need to feel safe and reassured. So once you identify what your fear is that is holding you back then you must give yourself what you need. Reassurance and safety based in the truth of God’s Word to relieve that fear through faith.
- Challenge the fears with sound truth. Sometimes when we hear thoughts in our minds or feedback from others (some well intentioned and some not) we can become conflicted with what is truth and what is not. Even when we think we are hearing from God, people often feel stuck because they are ‘waiting on confirmation’ even after they received clear instructions on what they need to do. If we are not careful when we leave things open to interpretation we can be led astray to a path that is not for us. Let’s use the example of perhaps a person who wants to pursue a deeper relationship with God and tries to break away from their past life of sin, but they struggle with a fear of rejection and abandonment. Making positive changes in your life may distance people around you who prefer you to stay the same. At this point you will be faced with an ultimatum as to who’s opinion matters most. Will you shift your priorities of caring more about God’s approval or humans?
Breaking past patterns is hard and we are naturally imperfect sinful humans, but remember the freedom God says we can have when we walk in obedience to His word. Would you rather have freedom walking in right standing with the Lord or walk on a path filled with stepping stones of other people’s criticisms and praises? If we live for the approval of man over God, then we are missing out on the life God has for us. If we are to be set apart as God’s chosen people we first have to face some separation from others, loneliness and rejection. If we check the Bible it highlights this in many stories and verses to show how God first may allow painful circumstances to set His people apart to then use them in a miraculous way.
Let’s check what the Bible says explicitly about some common fears people struggle with when it comes to living a life for God.
Fear of people: “The Lord is with me; I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?” (Psalm 118:6) I used pray on this verse when I felt nervous on a job interview or going on dates (when I was single) or even when I was doing case management going into strangers homes. It provides boldness in our spirits if we keep this perspective because it takes the power out of anything a ‘mere mortal’ can do to you when you believe it.
Fear of rejection: “If the world hates you, keep in mind that ti hated me first.” (John 15:18) Another great verse to shift your focus off of yourself and remember Jesus who experienced the most severe form of rejection to the point of conspiracy, mockery, torture and death on a cross. For example, if you experience rejection from your coworkers because they exclude you from their social gatherings because you don’t gossip or drink alcohol, consider yourself in a similar position as Jesus. Many people judged him for wanting to live a righteous life and it made them fear him because it highlighted their flaws. I am not saying this is always the case, but when it is, express gratitude to God for allowing you to honor Him with your choices. Something happens when I express gratitude for the hard things I am going through, because it is me surrendering my will to His. Also, thinking on this verse humbles me because Jesus took on that pain and death for me because He loved me, so if living a life that honors Him leads to me feeling a little uncomfortable I will gladly do that.
“The stone that the builders rejected has now become the cornerstone” (Psalm 118:22) “For the Lord will not reject his people; he will never forsake his inheritance” (Psalm 94:14)
Fear of abandonment: “Even if my mother and father abandon me, the Lord will hold me close” (Psalm 27:10) “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you.” (Deuteronomy 31:6)
3. Seek Support. This one is crucial especially if you are a new believer and not as familiar in how to discern the voice of God. Find yourself a good solid church community or group of believers who know the Word of God as well because they will be able to call out satan’s lies for what they are if they come up. For example if someone makes critical comments about you when you are developing a new business idea or looking into new career pursuits and it makes you begin to have self-doubt about the plan God told you to pursuit, if you have godly friends they can help discern prosperous feedback from poisonous feedback. One of the simplest ways to identify if you are hearing from God or being deceived by the devil is to check if what you are hearing aligns with God’s Word and if it is causing confusion it is not from God.
God is a God of clarity, confirmation and confidence. He will empower you with a clear vision, but the enemy will try to cloud you of that vision. This is why we need community to help us to see clearly especially if we struggle with underlying issues of self-doubt or low self-esteem that clouds of view of ourselves and our identities. As a new believer you are just figuring out who you truly are. Which is why this next verse is my favorite and helped me to reshape my view of myself in such a big way.
Fear of Inadequacy: “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and of a sound mind.” (2 Timothy 1:7) When you read this to yourself every day and believe it and carry it with you on your heart you will begin to feel the powerful effects of it. The Word has the ability to renew our minds, hearts and spirits because of the supernatural power it carries. Write it down somewhere and highlight the the word “NOT” because any time those thoughts of self-doubt creep in just remember what you are NOT. You are NOT a failure. You are NOT worthless. You are NOT weak. You are NOT unlovable. You are NOT too far gone or too late. Replace every doubt and negative thought about yourself with the truth of what God says He has given you. “God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a human that He should change his mind.” (Numbers 23:19) so there is no way your thoughts can be true if it goes against the Word of God, He is unchanging. “My God made me and I have power, love and a sound mind” -Period.
4. Take Action. Whether it is simply telling a friend of the plan to get accountability as you begin building in the things God has told you to do or actually taking a physical step, just start moving! Joyce Meyers has written and spoken on this concept of “Do it scared” mentality which is just moving forward despite how we are feeling and relying on our faith and trust in God. If we waited until all fear subsided to do anything, then nothing would get done! Let’s just use Jesus as the perfect example in the Bible the night before he was to die on the cross he prayed in such distress and despair he was sweating blood begging God not to have to go to the cross. However, he then said “yet not my will, but yours be done” (Luke 22:42) meaning no matter how he was feeling he knew and trusted God had a reason for him to go through with it. To save us all.
For some this fear associated with taking action is fear of failure and I think if we re-work our view of success we can undermine the sting of failure. If we are following what God commands us to do despite our feelings and something appears to “not work out” (in the way we may have hoped) we can still refer to the Word of God which tells us He works all things together for our good. So if it isn’t good, it isn’t finished yet. Also it is important to remember that inaction is a sin, for it is written “Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, it is sin” (James 4:17). So stop thinking about it and just DO IT! If God told you to do it, then also trust Him with the outcome. The key to this is active surrendering, which will free you from any fear of failure! Take that next step and leave your fears in the hands of the God of the universe, something tells me He can handle it. 🙂
Tell me what fears you are actively giving up today for a better tomorrow? Comment below!
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