Somewhere in your life fear is holding you back. There’s your fear of what may never happen, and then there’s your fear of what could happen, so basically there’s fear around everything. Where does that fear come from and what is it doing to you?
Fear doesn’t come from God.
2 Timothy 1:7 says “For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.”
Fear is in fact one of the enemy’s finest tactics to keep you from reaching your full potential. Fear cripples us in inaction and keeps us stuck in our head. After listening to that voice of fear for so long we become hell bent against our own selves, sabotaging ourselves, getting in our own way, setting up road blocks to keep us from the very things we want. AND WE’RE THE ONES DOING IT. Have you ever listened to yourself literally talking yourself down from action? It’s ridiculous, and yet every single one of us have done it and may still be doing it.
You no longer have to be a slave to fear. Did you know God has already equipped you with every single thing you need to overcome your fear and live in confidence and peace today? Remember that scripture says God didn’t give you a spirit of fear, nope, that fear you have comes from the enemy, but God gave you three things … power, love and self-discipline. You already have power. You already have love. And you already have self-discipline. They’re inside of you, given to you by your creator. You’re not lacking any of these things, but perhaps fear has been overriding them.
The enemy’s offer of fear attacks the very things God has equipped you with. Think about it, God gives you power so the enemy plants seeds of fear in you to make you FEEL powerless. It’s fear that holds you back from taking action and exercising your God given power, so you get stuck and then you stay stuck, living a life far short of what’s truly available to you. Not only available to you, but specially designed for you. How heartbreaking would it be to come to the end of this life and realize how much bigger and better the life you were designed for was than the life you lived, and it was all because you let the enemy get in your head with his offer of fear instead of waking up and putting your feet on the floor in power and taking a stand.
Within you is enough love to change your world. Your love can cause you to do radical things. A mother’s love can lift a car off her child. I’m telling you love can move mountains. But most days we’re stuck in fear instead of living in full love. We withhold our love in fear of judgment, fear of rejection, fear of failure, and so our world goes on hungry for the very thing only we can give … but we’re too afraid to give it. So the enemy wins. Your love that can change lives and impact this world is stuck in a jail of fear.
And finally make no mistake about it, you do have self-discipline. You do have power over the choices you make. You’re not a bad robot set to make all the wrong decisions. You can follow through with your commitments. You can make the tough choices now for the long term benefit. Yes you can darn it, quit selling yourself short. You have self-disciple because God gave it to you. The only problem is, you may have been listening to the spirit of fear (which remember didn’t come from God) telling you that you’re weak, you’re broken, there’s something wrong with you, everyone else can do this but for some reason you just can’t. That’s crap. Seriously, call it what it really is. That’s crap. Crappy fear will ruin your life.
Memorize this scripture today and make it personal. God has not given me a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and self-discipline. I’m no longer a slave to fear, I am a child of God. I am filled with power. I am overflowing with love. And I am harnessing my self-discipline. Every time you feel fear creeping in trying to talk you out of doing the things you said you would do, trying to get you to settle for less than you really want, trying to hold you back from living the life you were created for, you address that fear direct. Fear, I know where you came from and I refuse you today. I’m not your slave any longer. I am a child of God with power, love and self-discipline.