What's Holding You Back?

Todays episode highlights the challenges we face when we decide to pursue the purpose God has for our lives. 

• Fear is a barrier to moving forward , the fear of failure particularly can holds us captive, forcing us to remain where we are, when God has called and equipped us to move.

• Comparison steals our fervor for moving, as we are constantly gazing on the others and this affects us and like fear holds us captive. God has equipped each of us with everything we  need to succeed. 

• Recognizing and embracing our unique gifts is an integral part of our our lives, particularly as believers. The enemy wants us to doubt the investment and gift God has placed within us to make a difference in the lives of others. Once he has us there we won't not move forward. 

• The importance of action in faith, we have to see anything that holds us back as the thief of our purpose, our lives were created for impact, but this can't happen if we don't move.

• The call to serve and impact others is a high calling from God, and He will be asking us, what have you done with what I have given you, what will your answer be?

Let us move boldly towards our calling and remember that there are people waiting for our obedience and purpose. 

Chapters

• 19:00 Struggling with Fear and Doubt
• 1:01:00 The Comparison Trap: Finding Your Voice
• 11:15:00 The Call to Action: Moving Forward in Faith

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:09

Hi, everyone, welcome. Thank you for joining us today on our Positioned for Purpose Conversations with Colette Marie podcast. I'm your host, colette Marie. Yes, our podcast is for women of faith who struggle to see God in the places of pain and hardship and who need a reminder, a gentle reminder that, right where you are, god will use you. In the mess, in the hardships, in the most challenging times, in your heartaches and in your pain. God has a greater plan for your story, romans 8, 28 states. For we know that all things work together for good to them that love God and are called according to his purpose. Hi, welcome back to today's conversation. If this is your first time, thank you for listening, and if you've been with me for a while, thank you for your continued support.

Speaker 1: 1:11

As we talk about purpose and how we walk. In that, my mind is going back on what our first call will be, that day when we realize that God has called us some more, that he wants us to do and be and make an impact in the lives of our community. And that starts with our home, our church, our workplaces, and then to our nation. And as I think about it, there are some challenges that normally presents itself these challenges. If we allow them, they will pause us or stop us in our tracks and we will not move on. And one of the first thing is fear. Fear says what are you doing? You're going to fail. My question to you would be so what if you fail? So what if you fail? We've made failure be as a bad word, but it isn't. It's in failing that we learn. It is in failing that we win. It is in failing that we know how to do something. When we think of Thomas Edison and how many times he tried that light bulb until it worked, how about us? When we are starting, don't be stuck in the place of failure and saying, oh, I'm going to fail, and we're comparing ourselves to someone else and say, but this person is doing. The reality is that they had to fail to learn and it is in this learning that we're able to succeed at what God has called and equipped us to do. So the next thing that we look at is comparison. Equipped us to do so.

Speaker 1: 3:07

The next thing that we look at is comparison. We start to compare ourselves to someone else. If they're doing the same thing as us, we start to compare ourselves to them and we're saying oh, but I don't sound like this person. I don't sing, I don't teach, I don't coach, I don't write, I don't and you can fill in the blanks like the other person. Comparison steals from us the gift that we are to whom God has called us to be, because when we compare ourselves, then we don't move, similarly to when we allow fear to stop us or to pause us. It's the same thing that comparison does, because we are always comparing ourselves to someone else and the reality is that we don't need to compare ourselves to anyone else, because we are all walking our own races. We're all walking in our individual calling, calling, and I can tell you, as someone who've allowed fear to hold me back, as someone who's compared myself to others, I know what that's like. So I'm not telling you from a place of just talking, to just waste time. No, I'm telling you that you have to push past the fear and move. You have to choose not to compare yourself to someone else because you're running your own individual race.

Speaker 1: 4:34

The next thing is that we doubt the ability that God has given to us. We doubt that we are able to do what God has called us to do and listen. I can totally get that, because that's somewhere that I have been stuck for a very long time. I doubt my ability to do what God has given me to do. I doubt that he could use me. I doubt that I am capable. I doubt that I have everything that is needed to do. And when we do that, or when I do that, it is saying that God didn't know what he was doing when he created me the way he created me, when he gifted me with the gifts that he gave me and the abilities to do it.

Speaker 1: 5:16

If you reflect back on the children of Israel, and when Joshua and Caleb and the others, they went to spy out the land, they got the fruits and it was so much. They saw a land that was laid and that was for them to take, yet still 10 of them said that they couldn't go. They could not see their ability to do what God had told them that they could have done, because God has already given them everything that they needed to take over the land. But they doubted their ability to do that. God had already told them that he was with them, the same way how he was with Moses. He would be with them, yet they doubted it. Because they look at, looking at what was before them, and thought it was so much that there were giants in the land and they could not do it. And that's how we are as well.

Speaker 1: 6:16

When we doubt our abilities, we start to see ourselves as grasshoppers instead of giants. And can I tell you something? Let me whisper it to you that's how I saw myself as a grasshopper instead of the giant that God has created me to be. Who do you see yourself today? Are you seeing yourself as a grasshopper or are you seeing yourself as a giant? So we looked at three things so far. We looked at fear, we looked at comparison and we are looking at how we look at our ability to do what God has called us to do. And then we are looking also at the landscape. We are saying well, lord, how can you call me? In such a time as this, when there's so much that is happening around me? How can I make an impact in the lives that you have called me to make an impact in? Can I tell you, looking at what is happening around us can be scary. It can be scary and that, as well, will cause us to not move either, because we're saying god, who am I going to speak to? Who will listen to me? Who will even acknowledge that I am there? And can I tell you something? These are lessons learned, right? We can't allow that to hold us in place, because I'm telling you my real story.

Speaker 1: 7:44

This thing of walking in purpose and and fulfilling the call on our lives. Listen, it's, it's heavy. No matter what you are called to do, it is heavy, and there are so many things that's happening around us that will want to dull our voice, voices so that we do not move, so that we dull our voices, so that we do not move, so that we do not do, so that we do not be all that God has equipped us to do. And so, when we are scared of moving, that's the opportunity, now that we have to go to our father and say, daddy, or however you address him. This is how I I'm feeling. I feel this fire within me. I know you've called me to do something. I understand, but, based on what is happening around me, I don't know how to start. Can I tell you, once we go to him with that place, he will speak to us. He'll either send us to his word, he's either speaks to us in a still small voice, or he will send someone who is going to come alongside us to help, to encourage us and to bolster us right. So being scared of the unknown should not be where we are stuck, but instead we would remember that God has given us the landscape, he has given us the people, he says he is with us, and so all we need to do is therefore then just move.

Speaker 1: 9:21

And moving is not easy, can I tell you. Moving is not always easy. No, it's not, because when you think of the fear, when you think of comparison, when you think of or thoughts of, or inability to move, when you also look at the landscape around you and it causes you to be fearful and it causes you to doubt the call that God has in your life, then you will not want to move. But can I tell you something? That's exactly the place that the enemy wants us to be. He wants us to be in a place where we don't move. He doesn't mind that. We know what God has called us to do. He doesn't mind that, but what he minds is the fact that we're going to put action to the call.

Speaker 1: 10:10

So can I ask you today, what has God called you to do? Where on the journey are you? Are you still stuck at fear? Are you stuck at doubting the call? Are you looking at your inability to move and do what God has called you to do? Or are you scared? Because, can I tell you, where you are right now really matters. Where you are right now really matters because the word of God reminds us that he has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. So, therefore, he is calling us to action, he's calling us to move. He's calling us to move. He's calling us to do. Why? Because there are others on the other side of your obedience who are waiting on you, and as long as we remain stuck, as long as we do not move, then the others cannot be released.

Speaker 1: 11:11

Who are you called to serve? How do you plan to serve? Will you be like Joshua and Caleb and says we can take the land because God has given it to us? Or will you be like one of the ten who says no, there are giants in the land and we, basically, are grasshoppers? Today, I want to encourage you to see yourself as a giant. See yourself as a giant. We have been a grasshopper for far too long. Today, we are giant slayers. We are men and women of purpose, called forth to do great things in the kingdom and the body of Christ, and we have to move.

Speaker 1: 11:59

We will take a stand that we will no longer allow the enemy, his lies, to keep us bound where we are so that we do not move. We will instead choose action, and I know it's not easy, I know it's not easy, I know it's not easy, but there's one thing that I'm aware of, very much aware of, is that God is with me. So he was with Moses, so he was with Joshua, so he is with us today, and all he's asking us to do is to trust him, not to lean to our own understanding, but to acknowledge him in all our ways, and he will direct our path. That's the God that we serve. He's given you and I gifts, and can I tell you and I know if you've listened to previous podcasts, you hear me say there is come on a time that he will ask us what have you done with what I have given you? And our answers will be lord you. I have used up my talents. I've doubled the gifts that you've given me. I've doubled them. I've doubled them. We will not be like the servant who went and hid his talent.

Speaker 1: 13:16

And so, today, my encouragement to you is to move, because there are people who are waiting on you, waiting on you. Let us pray, father, how excellent is your name in all the earth. I praise you for who you are. You are the almighty God, the maker of heaven and earth. And, lord, I place my sisters, my friends, before you.

Speaker 1: 13:40

Today, father, there are times when we are stuck in fear. We are stuck in comparison mode. We are looking at our inabilities to move, lord. We are looking at the landscape and we are scared and we are asking you to help us today to move. And we are scared and we're asking you to help us today to move. Lord, remove the scales from our eyes so that we can see, lord God, that there are more with us, lord God, than them that are against us, and that the enemy wants us to remain where we are, so that we don't make an impact in the lives of who you've called us to serve. I pray, spirit of the living God, that your presence, your peace, oh Lord God, your strength will infuse us and infill us today, and you'll cause us to move and to take action. We bless you and we honor you In Jesus' name. Amen and amen. Thank you, my friend, for listening.