WHAT HINDERS YOU FROM DOING WHAT GOD WANTS YOU TO DO?

BIBLE PASSAGE:
For God has not given us a spirit of fear,
but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
(2 Timothy 1:7)

MEDITATION:
Fear can be one of the most debilitating emotions we can have.
It can prevent us from being successful in anything we do. It
can stunt the improvement of our talents and skills. It can cause
us to withdraw from others and isolate ourselves into a silo.

When we withdraw, we are on a slippery slope of hopelessness.
We close the door on the possibility of things improving. Why?
Because God often sends others into our lives to encourage
and lift our spirits.

Fear can also cause us to start questioning what God has clearly
told us to do. If we aren’t careful, fear can take control of our
lives and lead us into a disobedient relationship with the Lord.
We may be confident that we are obediently doing what we feel
the Lord has told us to do. However, when persecutions,
disappointments or problems come into our lives, we can
start having doubts about God’s plan, and wonder if we
heard Him correctly.

Many of our fears are triggered by the unknowns. When we don’t
know what lies ahead, we become apprehensive. We start to imagine
all of the things that can go wrong. As our imagination causes us to
focus on the negative possibilities, we start to magnify our potential
problems until they seem insurmountable.

We need a sound mind to see things in a proper perspective. We need
a sound mind to prevent ourselves from giving up when things get
confusing, or we encounter obstacles. We need a sound mind to properly
look at things from God’s viewpoint.

God gave us the Holy Spirit to enable us to see things as He sees them.
The mighty power of the Holy Spirit enables us to prevent fear from
enslaving us. Christ came to set us free from the enslavement of sin,
but also to free us from the enslavement of fear.

ACTION:
What fears are active in your life? Has fear consumed you to the
point that you spend an inordinate about of time worrying? To
those who belong to Him, Jesus tells us not to worry.
    Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for
    tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day
    has enough trouble of its own. (Matthew 6:34)

When Jesus tells us “do not worry”, we can be sure that worry is
bad for us. Just as fear can lead to worry, worry can also lead to
fear. No matter which comes first, both of them can inhibit our
efforts to do what the Lord has called us to do.

Pray,
“Heavenly Father, please forgive me if I have been enslaved
to fear and worry. I know that you do not want me to have
these emotions if I truly belong to You. I also know that You
can free me from this type of bondage. Please help me to rid
myself of fear and worry, so that I can freely follow the path
You have charted for me. I know that serving You will open
the door to new blessings for me. Satan doesn’t want me to
have those blessings, so he tries to induce fear into my
thoughts and actions. Holy Spirit, erase these negative
thoughts from my mind.”

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We need a sound mind to see things in a proper perspective.
We need a sound mind to prevent ourselves from giving up 
when things get confusing, or we encounter obstacles.
We need a sound mind to properly look at things from God’s viewpoint.