What's Holding You Back?Sample

DISQUALIFICATION

How many of you are living with fears and insecurities holding you back from living to your full potential in Christ?

In this reading plan, we will look at the story of the Samaritan Woman at the well, found in John 4, as a backdrop for our journey. We will consider how fear-based mindsets can underpin patterns of self-protective behavior that keep people stuck and hold them back from living in the fullness of what we were created for. The hope is to help you find freedom from fears, find tools for demolishing cycles that have kept you stuck and discover a deepening revelation of who Jesus is that leads to finding your voice in declaring this good news to others.

“Why are you asking me?” was the woman at the well’s response when Jesus asked her for water. Her statement was a disqualification question. In the verse before, she had compared her ethnic religion and gender to Jesus and rendered herself disqualified. How many of you disqualify yourself based on what you are not?

So many disqualify themselves from opportunities, relationships, or being used by God purely because they believe they are not good enough, qualified enough, educated enough, articulate enough, experienced enough, attractive enough, popular enough, etc.

If the enemy can’t stop you from becoming a Christ follower, he will do everything he can to make you an ineffective one. One of the most effective ways he does this is by getting you to disqualify yourself, your value, your potential, and your purpose because of mindsets that live in fear. When we disqualify ourselves, it often results in our world becoming smaller. This is the fruit of fears.

REFLECTIVE QUESTIONS:

• What are the spaces in your world that have become small?
• What is your greatest fear in these spaces?
• What are the mindsets you wrestle with that have disqualified you?

PRAY:

Lord, show me the spaces in my life that have become increasingly small because of fear. Reveal the mindsets that hold me back from walking in the fullness of your plans for my life. Guide me as I journey through this plan back to the right path. Amen.