When Fear Has Your Potential Shackled...
When Fear Has Your Potential Shackled….
How To Over Come Limiting Beliefs
I bet you have heard this expression before…”Everything happens for a reason!”
In my younger adult life I used to believe there was actually some truth to that statement. Now, that I’m a little older and have several more years of life experience under my belt, I don’t really think there is much truth to it at all!
The quote should instead read…”Everything happens for a PURPOSE!”
Isn’t it funny how we “think” we know it all as high school graduates or early adults only to find out 10-20 years down the road that we were totally clueless! I know for me…this is very accurate of how I view my current life.
My husband and I are preparing to welcome our 4th child into the world in a few months. Trying to work together and make the best decisions possible for our expanding family while still soaking up memories happening daily with our other 3 kids who are 10, 6, and 5. God has given me such a sense of peace when it comes to welcoming this new baby into our family. Our marriage is in such a good place, we are blessed with a big enough car to hold everyone, enough space in our home (it will be a tight fit but everyone will fit), and just pure joy from her siblings who can’t wait to meet her for the first time.
Looking back….
My marriage, mental peace, and trust in God hasn’t always been this way. About year 5 into our marriage we were honestly just about ready to call it quits. We were both still young, immature, and both SUPER stubborn mules who had our feet planted in “I am the one that’s right” concrete. We were both right, but viewing our marriage as it was only the other spouses fault and if they would change it would be all better was just fueling the mini storms in our marriage and creating a hurricane.
I remembered one night tearfully broken praying to God, “Please change my husband’s heart so he can see what is he doing and this marriage can be healed.” No sooner did those words leave my mouth I heard God reply, “What about YOUR heart?!!” I honestly had been so focused on the wrongs my husband was doing that I failed to see my own negative actions and the sin in my own heart.
Our hearts are the very thing that bring life or bring darkness in our circumstances. In the Bible King Solomon warns us..
“Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life”
Proverbs 4:23
My heart was broken and jaded to the “world’s idea” of what marriage should look like that I couldn’t see how God was allowing these storms in our marriage to actually strengthen us for years down the road. Having God turn my focus off of my Husband’s heart and on to mine allowed me to really see that I wasn’t being a wellspring for life at all! I was actually feeding into the darkness of the storm and trying to fix the situations with my humanity strength instead of with Jesus Christ’s Holy Healing Power!
Friends, one things we are promised in this world is hardships, but we can hold fast to the promise that in those seasons of life God is growing our faith in him, strengthening our hearts to not fall to the world’s standards, and to be able to full fill HIS God given purpose over our lives. I love this verse…
“And the God of all grace, who called you on his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. To him be the power forever and ever. Amen”
1 Peter 5:8
Everything happens for a purpose for HIS eternal glory! Simon Peter in the Bible had a HUGE purpose from God on his life. He was the one who Jesus said,
“Now I say to you that you are Peter (which means rock), and upon this rock I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it.” Matthew 16:18
Peter was the person God chose to deliver the Holy Spirit to the Jews and the Gentiles for the first time each…what a calling right?!?!
As pure as his heart was Peter still looses faith right before Jesus’s crucifixion and denies Jesus 3 times! Now, Peter caught in what probably feels like a horrible hurricane situation has 2 choices. He can either allow Jesus to heal the doubting, sinful, and dishonest parts of his heart and be able to complete his purpose or let shame take over and be defeated. Thankfully Peter chose to allowed Jesus to forgive him and heal the broken parts of his heart.
With out Jesus pointing our vision back to our own hearts, instead of just focusing on the mistakes everyone around us is making, we can never really be healed or strengthen for the God given purposes over our lives.
The purpose of healing both our hearts in my marriage might be for the purpose on our lives or possibly to set the foundation for our children’s purpose over their lives. Either way with out turning our vision off of the other’s faults and on our brokenness, we would have never made it onto the other side of the hurricane to see God beautiful light shine on our lives! Every situation has 2 choices, the choice to let it completely defeat you and any future blessings from it or allow God to heal the places we have let our worldly sins tarnish.
The hurricane in your life right now might not be your marriage. It could be an addiction like alcohol, drugs, over eating, or other forms of self sabotage. It could be an illness that seems in this moment too much to handle or even a troubled career path that you know you need to get out of but the doors to leave seem locked.
Whatever it is I want to encourage you to look at how your heart is really dealing with the situation. Do you feel crippled with fear because you know that your own might isn’t strong enough, but you haven’t really given it up to God fully for healing? Is the shame or pain in your heart actually shedding more darkness onto the situation instead of God’s light?
Even if your at the point of almost completely giving up, before you do, lay the hurricane at God’s feet. I promise you, the sunshine and peace after the storm is only something that can be felt if Jesus has taken the broken parts of your heart and healed them.
Everything happens for God’s great purpose!
So remember, fear will only keep you shackled as long as you allow it to have power over your life. God’s healing power is greater then the biggest, craziest, wildest storm going on in your life AND His promises never go unfulfilled.
Take heart in this promise…
“I have made you and I will carry you: I will sustain you and I will rescue you!”
Isaiah 46:4
I pray you reading this blog get to experience the peace of actually letting the broken parts of your heart out of the darkness and into God’s healing light! Have a blessed week!!
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