How to Rise up in Boldness to Face Your Fears

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Fear is the greatest enemy of your purpose, it can hold you back from doing so many things. It is pretty much guaranteed that if you want to achieve the greatness that God has in store for you, you’re going to have to face your fears.

I remember the first (and only haha) time I led worship. It was scary. I’d been on the worship team for years but never actually led a song.

Previously when asked I might have said no, but this time was different. This time I was determined to say yes. I wanted to do my best for God but I was going to take it one step at a time. Just a simple “Yes”. Whether I did great or not, it was going to be “Yes”.

And I did it. It wasn’t the best worship leading ever, but it wasn’t the worst and afterward, I was like “Yea Lord! We did it!” Lol! I was just so happy that I had said yes and had actually gone through with it. I was so happy that I had actually faced and conquered one of my fears.

You see I have made up my mind that I’m not going to let fear hold me back. There’s just too much that God has for me to do here and there is no way that I’m going to go to heaven and stand in front of Him and not be able to say that I did all I could to accomplish all that He sent me to do.

In my journey to this place of fearlessness (don’t be fooled, I’m so not there yet), I’ve found a few simple things that helped me face that fear giant and rise up in boldness to become who I was created to be.

Here’s what worked for me.

Believe what God says about you

God created you with a purpose and He’s already placed inside of you every single thing that you need to fulfill that purpose. He has plans for you, good plans. Believe what He says about you even if you can’t see it yet.

I remember once going to a concert and there someone was ministering to me and told me that God says that I am faithful. I was amazed because I didn’t really think that I was particularly faithful. In fact, I thought of myself as quite wishy-washy but I thought if God said so it must be true.

It was only when I understood that God had already written about me in a book in heaven that I realized that at that point in time God was allowing that person to see what was written in my book.

My book says that I am faithful and my taking it as truth even though I couldn’t see it in my own life at the time meant I agreed with what God said about me when he created me. 

When you believe what God says about you, you begin to focus on your purpose and not your fears. 

Believe what God says about fear

Determine not to let fear hold you back. Believe what God says about fear.

2 Tim 1:7 says “for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.” 2 Timothy‬ ‭1:7‬ ‭ESV‬ and Psalm 28:1b says “… but the righteous are as bold as a lion”. 

Romans 8:37 says you are MORE than a conqueror. In fact, the Complete Jewish Bible version says you are a SUPER conqueror. How awesome is that?

Truly fear is an illusion of the enemy. God has given you authority over ALL the power of the enemy (Luke 10:19).

You have nothing to fear, the Lord of Hosts is on your side (Romans 8:31)

Identify your fears – plan how to conquer them

You can’t fight something when you don’t know what it is. It’s important to identify the specific fears that consistently keep you from moving forward so that you can create a plan to fight them. 

The three most common fears that can hold a person back from success are fear of failure, fear of uncertainty, and fear of criticism. 

Fear of failure often masks itself as procrastination, which really is the fear of not doing something correctly or perfectly. The best way to fight procrastination is to just get it done.

Fear of uncertainty usually involves the fear of losing financial security. Pursuing your purpose might mean giving up a full-time job and a steady paycheck to start a new career that feeds your passion.

While this can be scary, especially if you have a family to provide for you need to remember that God is your provider. 

Criticism is sure to occur if you have to make changes in your life that better align with your purpose. It can come from family members, friends, and even your church family or leaders.  

Don’t hesitate to pursue your purpose because of what others might say. God has a unique plan for you and He may not allow many others to know in full what that plan is so they may not understand all that you are doing.

Don’t allow criticism from others to prevent you from pursuing all that God has for you. 

FACE your fears by taking action 

Now that you’ve determined not to let anything hold you back, your next step is to take action.

Prov 14:23 says “All hard work brings profit but mere talk leads only to poverty”

Don’t just talk about what you’re going to do. Begin to take the necessary steps to get there.

If you’ve been too busy doing things that aren’t necessarily in line with your purpose, streamline your life according to what God is calling you to do and focus on the things that are important. 

Make those things your priority because you will have to give an account for it when you stand face to face with Him.

Get uncomfortable – take risks

To conquer your fears you’re going to have to take risks. It took me a while to get this one. I never really equated risk with following God, I thought following God meant following the rules and staying safe.

But when it comes to God faith and risk is often the same thing. If you want to be successful in fulfilling the things that God has called you to do, you will have to take risks. He will require you to step out into the waves, go against the status quo and go where you’ve never gone before.

Risk is defined as the possibility of losing something but with God we know that anything we lose He is able to replace many times over. Trust Him. 

Realize that it’s not all about you

One morning I was really struggling to get out of bed at 3 a.m. That’s the time I set aside each morning so that I could spend time with God and do some writing before everyone got up.

As I lay in bed, I heard a voice say “Your purpose is not about you!” I’m must have looked quite comical as I scrambled out of bed with sheets and legs flying like some cartoon character. 

Whenever you find fear threatening to hold you back remember that your purpose is not all about you. 

When you understand that there are people waiting for you to write that book, or sing that song or create that business and that God can use it in some way to draw them closer to him, you won’t let anything hold you back not even your fears.

face your fears by Using scripture to encourage yourself

The truth is the journey won’t be easy. There will be times when you will feel like a complete failure, like you’re in a constant battle and getting absolutely nowhere.

Prepare ahead for times like these and arm yourself with scripture. I’ve mentioned at least 4 of them before (2 Timothy 1:7, Proverbs 28:1, Romans 8:37 and Luke 10:19) but here are a few more you can use to battle fear. 

God’s perfect love for you casts out all fear – 1 John 4:8

Your God is for you – Romans 8:31

He is with you, He is your God, He will help you, He will strengthen you, He will uphold you with His righteous right hand – Isaiah 41:10

Your God goes with you, He will not leave you nor forsake you – Deuteronomy 31:6

The Lord frees you from all of your fears – Psalm 34:4

When you are fearful, pray and take your requests to God – Philippians 4:6-7

At the end of it all, the only thing we should fear when it comes to pursuing our purpose is the possibility of having to stand in front of God and explain why we didn’t do all we could to achieve all He sent us to do.

Were any of these tips helpful in helping you to conquer your fears?

Do you have a suggestion that’s proved helpful for you? 

Leave a comment and let me know.