I love TD Jakes and this pic from his IG is perfect for this week! Each morning I read the daily verse from the YouVersion Bible app (highly recommend this app, BTW) to start my day…because being in the Word daily, consistently is foundationaly for us God-Centered entrepreneurs!
2nd Timothy 1:7 says, “For God has not given us a spirit of fear but of power and a sound mind.” That’s right, fear does NOT come from the Lord – our Lord is not a God of chaos, confusion, or mystery. Fear comes from the enemy, period. In my Life Principles Bible, Dr. Charles Stanley comments, “Fear focuses our attention on ourselves and on things that we do not need to consider. It fills our mind with hypothetical situations that all end in defeat and ruin. Eventually it utterly consumes us.”
Consumes us…yeah, that’s pretty all encompassing, right? And that’s exactly how fear feels, doesn’t it? Raising my hand here…how many of you have felt fear utterly consume you and freeze you from doing what you know you need to do to be obedient to the Lord’s call on your life in the vessel of the business that He’s given you. Yep. Been there.
Dr. Stanley goes on. “This is why we cannot shrink back in obeying God and using the gifts he has given us because He is ultimately in control of our futures. He already knows these things that are crossing our paths, He’s crossed them. He already knows the ending. And we are never victims of our circumstances, we are overwhelmingly triumphant in Christ and we must act like it. We need to show up boldly like that.”
So what can we do when we’re shrinking in fear? Whether it’s fear of picking up the phone and asking someone to take a look at your business, your product or service. That may be fear that you’re having a great month but what if it doesn’t last, or maybe it’s fear that you won’t reach your goals, or maybe it’s fear that people won’t join your team or the people that join your team won’t stay. These are all fears that entrepreneurs face in ways I believe we wouldn’t deal with in a day-to-day job.
But here are three things Dr. Charles Stanley says about combating our fears:
- Ask for God’s help: Are you covering this fear in prayer, asking Him to save you from this fear? This should be our first response whenever we feel fearful. Remember that when Peter tried to walk on water and he was overcome by fear, he asked for God’s help and he said ‘Lord save me’, so go ask for God’s help first.
- Ask Him to fill your heart with a sense of His abiding love: 1 John 4:18 says, ‘there is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear,’ so ask God to impart more of Christ’s love and to take away any torment that you feel. I promise you that will begin to make the fear subside and fear will lose it’s grip on you Just ask Him for more love.
- Ask God to give you the gifts that he promises us in 2 Timothy 1:7 – a sound mind filled to operate according to his word. The basis for a sound mind is God’s word. Period. So use this scripture to say, ‘Lord I know that you have not given me a spirit of fear. You’ve given me a spirit of power and love and of a sound mine. Invoke that power today, Lord, take this fear away from me.”
I know this sounds simple and it is. Pray…and pray some more. I promise He’ll answer you!
