Battling Self-Doubt PT 1

One of the biggest hurdles to walking in total freedom is self-doubt. Let's explore this issue and how the word of God can free us so we can fulfill our God-given callings.

Transcript

If you are a Christian woman today and you call Jesus Christ your Lord and Savior, I have a question for you to seriously consider right now. Get focused, lock in, listen carefully. Here is the question, and I want you to take time to think it through. Are you living to the fullest potential of God’s great will for your life right now? Why or why not? 

I want you to spend time thinking about this question. What is God’s calling over your life? Are you living it to the fullest right now? If not, what are you waiting for? This is a rally cry for all of my sisters in Christ to get on track. The Lord has something extremely powerful planned for your life and it is time for you to step into it. What you need to do is figure out why you are hesitating and what it is that is holding you back from the glorious life you could be living right now.

Ok, so I shared a little bit about my story in my interview with Logan Crawford in the previous episode, if you haven’t listened to that yet, please do, I’m not going to repeat all of that here. But, basically, I was a late bloomer in terms of career and knowing what to go to college for, and wondering what my purpose was. God made things clear to me, eventually, that it is my call to be a teacher of the word. Now, I do this actively in various ways now. I teach the junior high Bible study at my church, I’m a Christian author (my books help people apply God’s word to their lives), that’s also part of my goal with this podcast. I’m only beginning to step out in my gifts and really focus on making an impact for the kingdom and I feel that for me to go further in this I have to come to a place where I don’t allow certain old things to hold me back. Since I am doing this, I am realizing that the Lord always uses the things that we go through to teach other people, it teaches us, but it almost always ends up being something will inform or bless and encourage other believers, or unbelievers and turn them to the faith. But the question I am posing to you as a Christian woman is are you doing what God is calling you to do to the fullest right now? Well, are you? Why or why not?

One of the things that hold a lot of us back is self-doubt. We have a head knowledge of the truth, but sometimes we fail to really write those things on the tablets of or hearts, truly believe them and live them out. Example: A popular scripture is Philippians 4:13 NLT “For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.” We quote this scripture, and sometimes we will try to remember it when we have a long day ahead of us and we’re tired and it gets us through the day. That’s great, I’m not knocking that, it’s a good start. But if you really believe that nothing is impossible with Christ strengthening you, why do you hesitate to obey God? Can we be totally honest? Can we reflect on those little moments that we hesitate to obey the nudge of the Holy Spirit? Why do we do that? We can believe God for other people, and for Him to use other people, but when it comes to us, we freeze. What is going on with the self-doubt? It’s a big problem and it needs to be addressed. We need to be confident enough in God to trust Him when He calls us to do things outside of our comfort zones. If we are not in a place where we can step out in faith without hesitation, we are likely dealing with some deep rooted, hidden, self doubt that needs to go.

SO for a long time I struggled with self-doubt. When I graduated college, I went through a few years of just running from what God called me to do. I felt that I was too sinful. I felt that my imperfections disqualified me from God’s calling on my life regardless of how clear it was made to me. I literally had a speaker at a Christian conference tell me that I’m a teacher, and I still had so much doubt that I denied it and avoided it and I suffered for that. For like four years, I suffered for that. Is self-doubt the reason that you are not stepping out in faith? Have you allowed doubtful thoughts talk you out of your calling? I struggled with that. It wasn’t until I had an argument with my husband that I snapped out of it. I was miserable, he was miserable for me, because I didn’t obey God’s call. Are you, woman of God, in a place where you are hiding or hesitating to step out into what God is calling to do? Are you struggling with self-doubt today?

Sis, let me help you. In Ephesians 2:10 NLT it says, “For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.” The Lord took His time creating the work of art that you are. He didn’t just create you for fun, He created you with purpose by design. He had a plan long before you were born. He has ideas for you to do some truly good work on this Earth, and He literally created you for it. You were born for this purpose. Now, if you don’t know what that is, what God’s plan for your life is, I will address that issue in a moment, but stay with me here. God created you specifically for a good work. Are you doing that work, if you know what it is, are you doing it? Are you fully walking in that? Why or why not? 

Now the problem here is that if you are new to the faith, or even if you have been a Christian for a long time, you may struggle with belief. You have made the decision to believe God’s word, but it doesn’t go beyond a surface head knowledge. It has to become rooted with conviction in your heart in order for you to take action on that belief. If you truly believe something, with absolute certainty, there will be some sort of fruit from that, some actions that take place that prove you actually believe what you say that you believe. When it comes to your purpose, and being able to step out and say, “God is calling me to do this,” or “the Lord is leading me to start this,” or say this, you can’t have self-doubt at the same time. It’s going to cause hesitation. Self-doubt creates fear. Self-doubt is rooted in the anxiety of the unknown. We feel nervous because we don’t know for sure what’s going to happen or if we heard God correctly. We doubt if we are good enough or worth enough for the high calling God is drawing us into. We get stuck on ourselves, and we try to make excuses for why we haven’t done what God is calling us to do yet.

Are you making excuses for why you haven’t obeyed God? It’s my schedule or my finances, or the kids, or my spouse. I don’t feel ready to do this yet. Can I tell you something? You are never going to feel ready when God calls you. He always prepares you in some way whether you realize it or not, but you’re not going to feel ready. This is not about emotions or having all your ducks in a row, this about you surrendering your self doubt. When we doubt ourselves, we are actually saying that we don’t trust that God knows what He’s doing. We don’t really trust that He is making the right decision by asking us to do the good works that he has designed and created us to do. You can’t doubt yourself without doubting your creator.

It’s time to let go of the self-doubt sis. Your subconscious mind, is full of belief systems that need to be altered. You have to surrender that to God. Romans 12:1-2 NLT says, “And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. 2 Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.” Ok, let’s break this down. What does it mean to be a living sacrifice? What do you think of when you hear the word sacrifice? What does that look like, practically for you? To be a living sacrifice means that you are no longer going to do things your own way. You are going to learn how God wants you to do things, and then you’re going to do things his way. No matter how you’ve always done it, no matter what feels right to you, regardless of whether it is convenient for you or not, it’s His way not yours. It doesn’t matter what someone else is doing, it’s God’s way first and foremost always, in everything, big or small. That’s a tall order, is it not? This walk is not easy at all. Being a Christian, a real genuine believer, will take everything you have, but the rewards are so great. The beauty of it is that “You can do all things through Christ who gives you strength! He will not only show you how to do it, through His word, but He will be right there doing it within it you. The power comes from Him.

Now it says, back in verse 2, let God transform you by changing the way you think. This is the key to knowing God’s will for your life. Scripture. Girl, read you Bible! You have to read, study, meditate on, live breathe and know the Bible. You can’t dive into the word of God and not know what His will is for you. At the very least, you will be very clear on the things that are not His will for you. I can’t stress enough the importance of renewing your mind with God’s word. In my community I have a free bonus resource to go along with this episode; it’s my Memory Verses to Fight Self-Doubt pdf with 10 memory verses to help you build the confidence in Christ you need to step out in obedience in the moment. You can access that free when you join my email list on patreon.com/jesuswomen

If you have been struggling with self-doubt, I want to encourage you to pray on this. Put those doubts before the Lord and begin to seek His truth on the matter. If you are looking to truly understand how to renew your mind and allow God to transform you from the inside out join the Jesus Women Community on patreon. The links are in the show notes patreon.com/jesuswomen you can join for free to get the bonus resource for this episode, bonus content for future episodes, plus a weekly emailed devotional to encourage you on your journey. Sign up as a paid member to gain access to the community chat, direct messaging with me, plus discounts on all my products. 

God bless you and that you so much for listening. Be sure to subscribe to the show, sign up at patreon.com/jesuswomen to get the most out of the content. Don’t quit, get equipped! Take care!