The topic of fear has been one that I’ve visited often on the blog. Mostly because it’s the main source of many things that keep us separate from our truths in life. I sometimes struggle with my own fears as I navigate my path and challenge old beliefs that no longer serve me. And man is it difficult to shatter old paradigms!
Let’s be honest, we all know what it feels like to have hopes and dreams. But most of us know more about just wishing than we do the sweet taste of victory that accomplishing goals can bring. That’s because all too often we are so quick to talk ourselves right off the path of achievement because we fear that we aren’t good enough, don’t have enough, can’t do enough, etc…
What it means to be a prisoner of fear
Being a prisoner of fear means playing small and shying away from your highest expression of self. It’s that thing you do instead of going after your dreams, or letting your voice be heard on things that matter most to you. Being a prisoner of fear means procrastination, because it’s much scarier to begin a task than it is to avoid it. Being a prisoner of fear means running away from the very things that you’ve always yearned for because to run towards it would almost make it too good to be true (as if you don’t deserve it… !!!) Being a prisoner of fear means staying stuck in a cycle that just won’t let things get better for you.
Why we put ourselves through such agony and misery at times is one of humanity’s most sought after mysteries. So much so that religions have been formed around the very idea of either reasoning fear, erasing fear or creating more of it.
Being a prisoner of fear was not what our Creator intended, yet it’s a source of overcoming for many people’s journey. When we allow ourselves to be crippled by fear we keep ourselves separate from the expansion of our souls. We block ourselves off from the new-found awareness to do and be more in life. As a result, we fail to honor our calling, talents, and dreams, all because it scares us far more to face the fear than to overcome it.
Learning how to overcome
The truth is we were created in pure perfection––each of us brought into this world with our own gifts, talents, and ways of seeing life. When the Bible talks about the notion that man was created in the likeness of GOD, it was for the purpose of us understanding that we are POWERFUL co-creators, no less capable of performing miracles than the Supreme Being, but in the physical realm. Look around you, everything every created by man is a miracle by definition.
But when we allow fear to consume us, how then, do we ever expect things to change if we’re not willing to meet our CREATOR halfway?
I believe it to be true that we are 100% responsible for our 50% part in the process of co-creation.
Let’s face it… Dreams don’t just fall in one’s lap, and more often than not we’ll be required to do more than just pray. In the words of Steve Harvey, “sometimes you just gotta jump.”
“But wilt thou know, O’ vain man, that faith without works is dead.” — James 2:20 KJV
It is only when you face your fears head on and put in the work that you are capable of––when you’ve done all that you can do with the spirit of excellence––God will match your effort with miraculous results. Sounds like something that you already know intellectually, right? I know, me too! But that’s where this notion fear imprisonment comes in, and that’s where we have to meet it right where it shows up and turn it all around with acts of FAITH.
Are you a prisoner fear? If, so I’d like to know how you came to realize it and what you aspire to do to try and overcome it. Feel free to comment below or shoot me an email with your testimony at [email protected].
Until next time,
❤ @BCSTARKS
Originally published at bcstarks.com on September 6, 2013.