143 | Your Work Can Be Holy Ground: When God Is Calling But Fear Keeps You Quiet

Fine the full episode here: LivingOnPurposeInChrist.com/blog

If you’ve been hovering over “post” with a racing heart, editing yourself into silence, or telling God “later” until you feel more qualified, you’re exactly who we’re talking to today. In this episode, we’re diving into God and work, and why so many believers want their work to matter but feel stuck between obedience and hiding. Whether you serve through your workplace, business, ministry, home office, or everyday responsibilities, this conversation will encourage you to see how God can use your life to reach people for Christ without asking you to become someone you’re not.

We explore the real ways fear shows up online and at work, including procrastination, comparison, overpreparing, and staying small. Then we turn to the antidote Jesus gives in John 15: abiding. We unpack what it means to remain in Him, why peace is not weakness, and how creativity, devotions, and faith-rooted business grow stronger when they flow from God’s presence instead of pressure, perfectionism, or the need to prove yourself. You’ll hear practical examples of what abiding can look like before you open your laptop, write content, lead clients, or make a decision you’ve been avoiding.

We also talk honestly about emotions, feeling fragile in your confidence, and why feelings can become shaky foundations when they are tied to approval or results. You’ll receive biblical encouragement for building clarity and confidence through prayer and identity in Christ instead. We also share how the Aroma Freedom Technique, along with simple aromatherapy practices and essential oils, can help uncover the beliefs beneath stress and gently interrupt old fear patterns so you can move forward with more steadiness and peace.

If you’re ready to stop hiding and take one faithful next step, register for the free workshop "Partner with God in Your Workplace or Business" at PaulaBehrens.com/workshop, then subscribe, share this episode with a friend, and leave a review so more listeners can find it.

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Transcript

Feeling Afraid To Share Faith

Paula Behrens 0:00

If you've ever felt hesitant to share your faith, unsure how to show up online, afraid of saying the wrong thing, or stuck between wanting to obey God and wanting to stay hidden, this episode is for you. Today we're talking about how God can use your workplace, your business, your ministry, your home office, your creativity, and your everyday life to reach people for Christ. Stay with me to the end because I want to invite you to a free workshop called Partner with God in Your Workplace or Business, coming up real soon. Those who attend live will have the opportunity to win a free bottle of Young Living Essential Oil. And if you cannot attend live, not to worry, you can still receive the seven-day replay video and the workbook free. Are you finding it difficult to figure out where God is leading you through the whirlwind of daily life? Perhaps, like me, you had moments of doubt, surprise encounters, and maybe even a bit of overwhelm along the way. Well, if that resonates with you and you're yearning for clarity, peace, and faith-focused encouragement, this podcast is for you. Do you want to grow closer to God but your days are full and your devotional routine feels more like a struggle than a sanctuary? Well, that's where the Aroma of Christ Coaching Hour comes to the rescue. It's a personalized one-on-one session that will help you deepen your relationship with God in a way that truly fits your real life without the pressure or overwhelm. On a private Zoom call, we'll use the Aroma Freedom technique to identify what's weighing on your heart, uncover the beliefs beneath the stress, and invite Jesus to bring healing and alignment. Now, you might be thinking, how can that be? Well, you'll receive an essential oil sampler before our session to support this sacred journey. After the call, you'll have everything you need: a planning guide, a gospel reading schedule, a prayer journal, and practical guidance for using the aroma freedom technique in the privacy of your own home to quiet your mind, settle your spirit, and create space for prayer. Before you know it, your time with God will be something you're excited about again. Let's make your devotional life easy, meaningful, and refreshingly Christ-centered. Book your Aroma of Christ coaching hour at PaulaBehrens.com /coaching. That's Paula Behrens B-E-H R E N S .com /coaching (no spaces). Look for a link in the show notes. All right, it's time to get started. Grab your Bible, dust off your journal, cozy up to your favorite beverage, and let's dive in. Many Christians want their lives to count for God's Kingdom. They want their work to matter. They want their words to carry life. They want to know what they are building, sharing, or offering is connected to something eternal. Deep down, many believers are asking, Lord, can you really use me right where I am? And the answer is yes. God has always used ordinary people in ordinary places. He uses people in homes, businesses, ministries, conversations, and quiet acts of obedience. Reaching others for Christ doesn't always happen through a stage or a microphone, you know. Often it happens through faithful presence. It happens through the way you speak, serve, encourage, create, lead, and love. It happens when you make yourself available to God right where you are. But for many of us, especially if we work from home or have an online business or ministry, there is a struggle. We want to be faithful, but we also feel resistance. We overthink, we delay, we compare ourselves to others, we keep editing, second guessing, and waiting until everything feels perfect. Fear often does not look dramatic. It looks like procrastination, hesitation, hiding, overpreparing, and staying small. Sometimes what we call waiting is really fear dressed up as caution. That fear affects how we show up. It affects whether we speak clearly about Jesus, whether we follow through on what God is asking us to do, and whether we create from peace or from pressure. That's why it matters where our work is flowing from. When I talk about the source of creativity, I mean the place from which your ideas, words, and actions are flowing. I believe true creativity begins with God, not with striving, pressure, or the need to prove yourself. When you create from His presence, your work carries more peace, clarity, and purpose. But when you are operating from pressure, you feel rushed, scattered, tense, and overly concerned with getting everything exactly right. You may look productive on the outside, but inside you feel disconnected from joy. Pressure makes us self-conscious. Peace helps us stay God conscious. Jesus never invited us into frantic fruitfulness. He invited us into abiding. In John 15, he tells us to abide in him. That means remain in him, stay connected to him, draw life from him, depend on him. Fruitfulness in the kingdom does not come from white-knuckled effort. It flows from relationship, it grows from connection, it comes from being with Jesus and then doing what flows from that place. And this leads us to a simple Greek word study. The word is menō (μένω), often translated as abide, remain, or stay. In John 15, when Jesus says, Abide in me, the Greek word behind the invitation is menō (μένω). It carries a sense of remaining, dwelling, continuing, enduring, and making your home in a place, sort of like a minnow in a pond. This is not a rushed word. It is not a pressured word. It is not a striving word. It is a settled word. It speaks of ongoing connection. What I love about this word is that it reminds us that the Christian life is not mainly about pushing harder. It's about staying close. To abide is to remain near to Christ in a living, active relationship. It means that before I speak, I stay. Before I build, I stay. Before I post, I stay. Before I lead, I stay. Before I try to reach others for Christ, I remain in Christ myself. The power is not in my performance. The power is in the life of Jesus flowing through a surrendered vessel. And when we live from menō (μένω), from abiding, our work changes. Our words soften and strengthen at the same time. Our decisions become less frantic. Our confidence becomes steadier because it's no longer built on reactions, numbers, applause, or outcomes. It is built on nearness. We are less shaken by who approves and who does not. We are less controlled by comparison. We are more able to take the next fruitful step because our identity is anchored in Christ. That is one reason reaching others for Christ is not ultimately about being impressive. It's about becoming anchored. Fruit comes from abiding. So what does this look like in real life? Well, it may look like beginning your workday with prayer before opening your laptop. It may look like asking the Holy Spirit, how do you want me to show up today? It may look like writing content that is honest instead of over polished. It may look like sharing a testimony rather than trying to sound impressive. It may look like offering encouragement to a client, customer, coworker, or listener because you sense the love of God for them. It may look like refusing to mimic the tone of the world in order to gain attention. It may look like making business decisions from peace rather than panic. And it may look like resting when God says rest, speaking when God says speak, and trusting Him with the outcome. One of the reasons people struggle to hold on to clarity and confidence is because they are building them on unstable foundations. If your clarity depends on everyone agreeing with you, it will disappear quickly. If your confidence depends on visible results, it will rise and fall constantly. If your direction depends on your feelings, it will feel uncertain whenever your emotions shift. But when clarity is rooted in prayer and confidence is rooted in identity, they become steadier. Not perfect, not effortless, but steadier. You may still feel nervous and move anyway. You may still feel stretched and obey anyway. Confidence in the kingdom is not the absence of weakness. It is trust in the One who has called you. I want to pause here and speak to the person who keeps second-guessing herself. Maybe you know there's something God has put in you. Maybe it's a message, a ministry, a business, a podcast, a coaching offer, or simply a burden to encourage other believers to gently point people to Jesus. But you keep pulling back. You keep asking yourself whether you are qualified, whether you are doing enough, whether it is the right time, whether people will understand, whether it is worth it. That is where the aroma freedom technique can be such a helpful tool. It's a step-by-step process that helps uncover and release the negative thoughts, emotional blocks, and inner resistance. It combines prayerful reflection, intentional questions, and the use of essential oils as sensory support. It's not a replacement for the Holy Spirit and it's not a magic formula. It's simply a gentle, practical way to notice what's happening beneath the surface and invite God into that space. In simple terms, part of the neuroscience behind this is that the brain forms patterns. If fear, rejection, perfectionism, or pressure have been repeated enough times, your brain starts treating them like familiar pathways. So even if you know God is calling you to show up, your mind and body may still react with stress. You may hesitate, overthink, or even shut down. The sense of smell connects closely to areas of the brain involved with memory and emotion. That is why aroma can affect your emotional state so quickly. In a calm, prayerful process, it can help interrupt old stress patterns and support new responses. In other words, it can help your brain and body settle enough for you to identify the fear, replace the lies with truth, and move forward with greater peace. And that is especially important online, where it's so easy to compare, strive, and feel pressure to perform. But God is not asking you to become louder just to get attention. He is asking you to become available. He is not asking you to copy someone else's voice. He's asking you to steward the one He has already given to you. God wants you to have peace. Peace is not weakness. Peace helps you hear his voice more clearly. Peace helps you respond instead of react. Peace helps you create from presence instead of panic. You know, your work can become a place where you partner with God. Your business can become a place of ministry. Your creativity can become an offering. Your words can become vessels of hope. When you work from a place of abiding, people sense the difference. They may not always be able to explain it, but they can feel the peace, sincerity, and integrity that comes from a life rooted in Christ. You may be wondering how to hear God more clearly in all of this. Well, the answer begins with daily listening through prayer and scripture. Even a few quiet minutes each morning can help train your heart to recognize his voice. Invite the Holy Spirit to speak, test what you sense against his word, and notice the fruit it produces. God's voice always brings peace, even when he is stretching you to grow. And let me say this tenderly to the person who has been hiding. You may have been waiting for boldness before you obey, but often boldness grows in obedience. Courage is not always loud. Sometimes courage looks like posting the message, sharing the testimony, opening the laptop, recording the episode, or simply taking one small faithful step forward. God can do a lot through one yielded life. That's why I'm so excited to invite you to my free workshop, "Partner With God In Your Workplace or Business," happening on March 31st, 2026. This workshop is for the person who wants to quiet the inner critic, reconnect with God in creative work, understand what is draining peace and confidence, and learn practical ways to move forward with more clarity and purpose. We'll talk about what it means to create from the right source, how to recognize subtle signs of pressure, how fear shows up in everyday work and business decisions, why clarity and confidence can feel unstable, and how to hear God's guidance more clearly. My heart is that you would leave encouraged, grounded, and ready to take your next step with greater peace. If you have ever thought, I know God has given me something, but I keep hesitating, this workshop is for you. If you've ever felt creatively blocked, spiritually dry, or afraid to show up online in a way that reflects your faith, this workshop is for you. If you want to learn how to partner with God more closely in your workplace, business, or ministry, this workshop is for you. You can register for free at Paula Behrens.com /workshop. Again, that's Paula Behrens B-E-H R E N S .com /workshop (no spaces). If you attend live, you'll have the opportunity to win a free bottle of Young Living Essential Oil. And if you can't make it live, you'll still receive the seven-day replay video and the workbook. You can register for free at Paula Behrens.com /workshop. Okay, before we close, I want to leave you with this. You do not have to reach everyone. You simply need to be faithful with the people and opportunities God places in front of you. You don't have to force fruit. You are called to abide. You don't have to prove yourself. You are called to obey. And you don't have to wait until everything feels polished. God can use you right now, right where you are. Your home office can become holy ground. Your work can reflect Christ. Your obedience can become someone else's answered prayer. So ask the Lord today, where have I been operating from pressure instead of peace? And then ask, what is my next faithful step? If this episode stirred something in you, don't ignore that nudge. Go and sign up right now for "Partner With God In Your Workplace or Business" at PaulaBehrens.com /workshop. Thank you for tuning in today. And remember, just like setting biblical boundaries, it's okay to say no to things that don't serve you well, like that third piece of cake at the church potluck. If you were blessed by this episode, be sure to share it with a friend and leave a review so that we can reach even more listeners like you. Check the show notes for all the links. Join us next week as we continue to discover how to live on purpose in Christ. Until then, keep leaning into Him and walking in His Wisdom. See you next time.