What’s Holding You Back?
What’s holding you back?
What’s keeping you from doing what you want to do in life?
What’s keeping you from doing what God has called you to do?
If you’re like most people, you have at least one reason. Maybe you think you’re too young, or you’re too old, that you don’t have enough experience, or enough of the “right” kind of experience, that you don’t have enough money, or you’ve made too many mistakes. Maybe your past is what’s holding you back.
I’ve been there.
Throughout my life, I’ve had all sorts of reasons not to move forward with the things God was calling me to do. In fact, at one time or another, I’ve probably told myself every one of the reasons I just gave you.
But most of those reasons were really just excuses I was giving myself because I was afraid.
Don’t give up on God’s plan just because you’re afraid, or because you face obstacles or hurdles.
You have to refuse to settle, to quit, or to back down.
Of course, we sometimes need to be patient with our aspirations, but most of the time our problem isn’t that we’re trying to move things ahead too quickly, but that, at some point, we adapted to cope with negative situations in life and then we parked there.
It’s easy to get stuck in a rut.
I once knew an elderly lady who lived through the very tough times of the Great Depression. I would often see her wearing a pair of tattered gloves. I wanted to bless her, so I bought her a new pair and took them to her.
Imagine my shock when she opened the gift, then took me to her dresser and placed the gloves neatly in the drawer.
She laid them in the drawer alongside six other pairs of brand-new gloves. SIX.
She couldn’t use or enjoy any of them because her mind was stuck. Her fear of not having enough had led her to hold onto nearly everything too tightly. She had developed a wrong pattern of thinking and acting that was holding her back in life.
Like that pair of gloves, God wants to give you good gifts.
But are you stuck? Are behaviors, habits, and old patterns of thinking and acting holding you back from being the best you can be and living the life God wants for you?
That’s called a stronghold.
2 Corinthians 10:4-5 says, “The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”
A stronghold is something you’ve believed for so long that it becomes truth in your life. It becomes the truth even if it’s really a lie.
And if you allow yourself to believe a lie, it might as well be the truth.
Because if you believe that you’re ugly, you’re going to act like you’re ugly. If you believe you can’t do something, you’re probably not even going to try to do it. If you believe no one will ever love you, then you’re not going to project anything lovable to anyone.
The good news is that you can overthrow and destroy strongholds. You can say, “Now wait a minute. I used to believe this, but this is not what the Word of God says.”
It may be tough, but you can do it. Remember Philippians 4:13 says, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
So, take a step forward. Measure what you say and believe against what God’s Word says in order to know what is really truth. Take thoughts captive that don’t line up with what the Bible says and cast them down.
It doesn’t matter how long you’ve had the stronghold in your life; you have the power to overcome through Jesus.
God didn’t purpose you for a life of failure. The key to walking in your full potential is to tap into the amazing ability to see life from God’s perspective.
Learn how you can apply this to your life today.
