What has fear convinced you to hide, bury, or hold back that God is asking you to finally put to work?

Episode Summary

We all want our lives to matter. We want to make a difference, live with purpose, and use what God has given us well. But so often, something gets in the way: fear.

In this solo episode, Collide founder and host Willow Weston explores Jesus’ parable of the talents in Matthew 25 and asks a challenging question: What have you buried because you’re afraid to use it?

In the parable, a master entrusts three servants with different amounts. Two put what they’ve been given to work and multiply it. The third buries his talent because he’s afraid. Willow points out that the master isn’t asking each person to produce the same result or possess the same gifts—he’s looking for the same thing from each of them: faithfulness with what they’ve already been given.

Willow challenges us to consider how much of our own lives we may be hiding, hoarding, holding back, or playing safe with because of fear. Maybe it’s your creativity. Your generosity. Your leadership. Your story. Your resources. Your dream. Your ability to encourage someone. Maybe it’s something that feels so small you’ve convinced yourself it couldn’t possibly matter.

But small things can become so much more when we’re willing to put them to work.

Willow shares the story of challenging 30 women on the Collide Ministry Team to take small amounts of money and leverage them for good. A few dollars became meals for people who were lonely, coffee for grieving families in hospital waiting rooms, help for a child who couldn’t afford to play sports, chairs for Collide classes, support for a grieving woman, and even a chicken that could help a family in an impoverished village earn money for school.

The question becomes: If God can multiply something that small, what could He do with your whole life?

Willow also gets personal about the fear that has held her back from writing. Despite feeling called to write—and even encouraging other women to use their gifts—she shares how fear of rejection, inadequacy, judgment, and failure has tempted her to keep her own words hidden. It’s a powerful reminder that we can believe someone else should use her gifts while simultaneously convincing ourselves ours aren’t good enough.

Through ten ways fear keeps us stuck, Willow exposes how fear lies, fuels comparison, reminds us of past failures, encourages us to play it safe, and convinces us to bury what God intended us to use.

But Jesus invites us out of hiding.

If fear has kept you small, silent, safe, or stuck, this episode is an invitation to pick up the shovel, uncover what you’ve buried, and start moving toward the life God has given you to live.

Meet Willow Weston

Willow Weston is the founder and director of Collide and host of The Collide Podcast. Through her teaching, writing, and leadership, Willow is passionate about helping women encounter Jesus in the midst of their real stories and move toward greater healing, hope, freedom, and purpose.

In this solo episode, Willow brings her own fears into the conversation, sharing honestly about the ways she has wrestled with putting her writing into the world. Her message is one she is learning to live herself: we weren’t given our lives, stories, gifts, and resources to bury them. We were given them to use.

Key Takeaways

• When you think you don’t have enough: Work with what you do have. God isn’t asking you to possess someone else’s gifts; He’s asking you to be faithful with yours.
• When something seems too small to matter: Put it to work anyway. A dollar, an encouraging word, a connection, a skill, or a few hours of your time can become more when you leverage it for someone else.
• When fear tells you to be like her: Remember Willow’s reminder: “Be you, not her.” Comparison can keep you from using the exact gifts God gave you.
• When your past makes you feel disqualified: Don’t let an old outcome determine every future possibility. Fear loves to use your past as evidence that you shouldn’t try again.
• When playing it safe feels responsible: Ask whether safety has become hiding. The servant protected what he had—but protecting it also meant it never multiplied.
• When you’re afraid of failure: Name the fear. Willow says fear begins losing some of its power when we uncover it instead of allowing it to quietly control us.
• When you’ve buried a gift or dream: Start digging. Write again. Apply for the job. Sing somewhere besides the shower. Give generously. Take the step you’ve been avoiding.
• When you feel held back: Remember that breaking free requires movement. Eventually, we have to act on the belief that God’s power is greater than whatever has been keeping us stuck.

How This Episode Will Encourage You

Maybe fear has convinced you that you’re not talented enough, educated enough, strong enough, interesting enough, spiritual enough, or brave enough.

Maybe you’ve spent years holding onto something God gave you because using it feels risky.

Willow compares fear to the tiny rope used to restrain a full-grown elephant. Because the elephant was conditioned when it was young to believe it couldn’t break free, it eventually stops trying—even when it has become powerful enough to snap the rope.

How many of us are doing the same thing?

Jesus doesn’t collide with us so we can remain tied to the same fears, lies, insecurities, and limitations. He wants us to break free.

So name the rope.

Dig up what you buried.

Take the step.

Use what you have.

Come out of hiding and run toward the life you were made to live.

Follow Willow: Website | Instagram | Facebook

💑Check out Collide’s website for info on upcoming conferences, events, and resources.

📲Follow Collide on Facebook and Instagram for encouragement, inspo and a fun peek into our ministry.

📰Plus, subscribe to our newsletter to stay up-to-date on all things Collide!

Welcome to the Collide Podcast. We're a growing community of everyday chicks colliding with Jesus in our mess, our pain, our joy, and our stories.

We value showing up as we truly are. So that's what you'll find here, walls and masks being torn down so that we can allow Jesus to meet us where we truly are and hear about other women doing the same. We can't wait to collide with you.

I think God shows up to collide with us because he wants us to break free. We can run. We can do what we dream to do. We can even handle doing what we don't dream to do, but know we're called to. We're stronger than we think.

Welcome to the Collide Podcast. I'm Willow Weston, the founder and director of Collide, and I'm so glad that you're hanging out with me today.

You know, I've been thinking a lot about what we all have in common.

And what we have in common is that no matter who we are, no matter where we feel like we're at with God, no matter where we've been on the journey, we all want the same thing. I think we really want our lives to matter. We want our lives to count. We want our lives to make a difference in this world.

And you know what else we have in common? We have in common that something often holds us back.

Something hinders us, something trips us up, something lies to us and tells us that we don't have what it takes. And I see it all the time. One of the most favorite things that I get to do is meet with women and listen to their stories.

And the story that I hear from most women is that they have this innate and beautiful desire to do big, great, bold, good things in this world. And something is holding them back from the fullness of those dreams. Something holds them back from their next level of greatness.

Something often gets in the way of the faithfulness that kind of life requires. And I believe that God has a plan and God has a purpose. And God has got a destiny for you and I, and he wants to do something big to our lives. So.

Something so beautiful, so redemptive, so big and so boundless. But first, he needs to do business with the something that is getting in our way.

And so I want to take some time on the podcast today to center around a collision in Matthew 25 that Christians often refer to as the parable of the talents. And it's a story about a master who entrusts to his workers talents or Some translations say bags of gold or coins.

And those who are smarter than me, who studied this passage, and it's been studied for hundreds of years, they don't all find the same page on the worth of these coins or bags of gold or talents. Some say a talent equaled 75 years wages, some say 6,000 days wages. Some say they equal $350,000.

What they all agree on, even though they disagree on its worth, they all agree on one thing, and that is this, that a talent was worth a substantial amount of money. And this Master comes and he gives these dudes differing amounts of talents. And when he returned, he asked what they did with it.

And interestingly enough, the men responded differently to what the Master gave them. And the Master seems to be impressed by two of them and more than disappointed in one. The man who was given five turned it into 10.

The man who was given two turned it into four. And these two grew what they had been given exponentially. And the Master said, well done, good and faithful servants.

But not the man who had been given one. No, he dug a hole and buried it. And the Master gets really ticked off.

This man who dug a hole and buried his talent in the ground might be a lot like you and I, being held back and tripped up by something that keeps us from fully tapping into our potential.

My guess is that every one of you are listening has something that you might be hiding, hoarding, holding back, squelching, keeping to yourself, afraid to use, or grasping onto too tightly.

And so I want to spend some time over the course of the next little while digging up what we've buried and inviting us to come out of hiding so that our lives can tell the story that we were made for.

You might feel annoyed that the Master gave differing amounts to these men in this parable, but here are four things to consider before you get all hard on the Master. Number one, remember the Master gave to them not what was theirs, but what was his.

And number two, we're called to put to work what we have not, what we have not, but what we already have. Barclay says God never demands from a man abilities which he has not got.

But he does demand that a man should use to the full the abilities which he does possess. Men are not equal in talent, but men can be equal in effort. Women are not equal in talent, but women can be equal in effort.

And the third thing is that the Master always gives. Based on previous faithfulness, we can easily judge the Master's gift, but we have no idea what faithfulness these men previously Exhibited.

Think about that. Perhaps the one who was given five at one point started out with one. And he earned the trust to receive more.

You'll soon see how the Master works like this. Faithfulness always leads to being given more. Faithfulness doesn't let us off the hook, but instead comes with more impact.

More responsibility, more oversight, more work, more talents, more leadership, and more to be faithful with. More faithfulness does not turn into a sweet pad in Arizona with a pool and a Mai Tai.

With more faithfulness, the Master allows you to keep what you have in order to keep putting it to work. And he begins to put you in charge of many things. That's what happens in this story.

And the fourth thing to know about the Master is that the Master is fair and equitable. He asks everyone for the same thing in return, regardless of what they have. Faithfulness. That's what he asks for in return. Who was more faithful?

The man with five or the man with two? They were equally faithful and so was the Master. So this Master goes on a trip and then comes back.

And much like Scripture describes what our Master has done, Jesus left for a time. And when he comes for us, he will call each of us to an account for what he entrusted to us.

Another commonality that we all share is that all our lives have an end. There will be a day where your life and my life will have its last day. We will expectedly or unexpectedly eat our last meal. We will hug our last hug.

We will breathe our last breath.

And when that day comes, all our goals, all our wishes we wish when we blew out our birthday candles, all the dreams we tried to make come true, all the things we invested in, all the relationships we did or did not tend to, all the words we said and didn't say, all the choices we made will all be sealed. There will be no undoing things. No more chances at opportunity. No more time to extend forgiveness and reconciliation.

No more ambition used toward accomplishing dreams. No more ability to reach back and help people we hoped got help. All our material goods won't go with us. Not even the dress we're buried in.

The Bible says we came naked and we will depart naked. I don't know about you, but I looked a lot better for my arrival than my departure.

Life as we know it will end, but the clock will keep ticking without us. The sun will set the night we die, and it will rise the next day. Monday will come, and so will the following Christmas and spring too.

Tulips will still pop up to say hello. Kids will still Play chase. Lovers will still fall in love, and birds will still fly south for the winter.

There's this sense around the way this will all work.

We were each given this one life, and at its end, we will experience a moment where we will meet our Maker and our Master, and he will ask us what we did with what he entrusted to us. This is not supposed to be a fearful experience, by the way, but somehow we go there.

Before we go get all down on God for wanting to have a convo with us about what we did with our one life, let's first consider what it would mean if God gave us life and didn't ask for an account. It seems to me that would mean it matters little, but that's just not the case. God seems to take our lives pretty seriously.

He thinks our lives matter so much so that it's like he says, make it all count. I cannot wait to hear what you did with it.

A few summers ago, my son Aiden, as a freshman, was headed to his first away football camp for like, five days. And I figured he might need some spending money, so I gave him some explaining.

I expected him to use it wisely and bring me back what he had left over. So when he got home, I said, do you have any of my money left over?

He looked at me with a twinkle in his eye and he said, I have more money than I left with. That sounded a little fishy to me, so I asked, how'd you pull that off?

He explained that every night after dinner there was a snack shack and people could buy whole pizzas. And Aiden started buying whole pizzas and then selling them to kids by the slice. And I was like, are you kidding me? That's freaking genius.

See, Aiden leveraged what he had and made it so much more. And I think that's what God asks us to do with our whole lives.

He asked us to take everything we've got, whether it's our business savvy, our sense of humor, our connections, our giftedness with kids, our ability to debate, our woo factor, our capability to sew, our wealth, our poverty, our strength, our pain, our learning lessons, our cabin in the mountains, our genius ideas, all of what it is we have. And God asks us to leverage it and make it more than it already is.

What struck me about this passage was that we're actually called to leverage our entire life. And I started thinking about this and I thought, how could I teach this?

I had to lead the Kolide Ministry team, a group of women who commit a year of their life to service With Clyde. And they help put on our conferences. And we first study a passage of scripture before we teach it.

And I was thinking about how I was going to teach this to this group of 30 women. And so I got dollar bills, and I put differing amounts, 5, 2, and 1, in envelopes. And we studied this passage.

And then I invited them to come and take these envelopes. And of course, they were all anticipatory to see who got the five and who got the two and who got the one.

And I gave them this leverage your life challenge. And I said, I want you to take that money and turn it into something more.

And I wasn't even sure what would possibly happen, but I said, I challenge you to leverage what you've been given and turn it into something more. Because you know what $1 doesn't feel like very much.

But if you go buy a coffee and sit down with a homeless guy at McDonald's, that $1 just became something so much more. So I give the team this challenge, and what struck me about it is the amount of impact and influence something small can have when you leverage it.

With our team of 30 women, so many lives were blessed. A young woman who lost her boyfriend felt loved and sent to a spa for a day. A lonely neighbor felt cared for.

Grieving people in the hospital felt listened to because one woman took her money and went and sat in the waiting room at the hospital and bought people coffee. A book library was built for a community where neighbors can gather and talk and swap books.

A kid who couldn't play sports because of a school fine was left off the hook and set free to play. $5 Bills turned into so much more when you go and sit with someone who's needy and have breakfast with them.

Just one woman started with $10, and it turned into $460 because she leveraged her community to turn it into more. And they blessed a woman whose father had just passed away.

One business owner mobilized her employees to pull together gift cards to care for someone in grief. Another $15 and turned it into 15 chairs for collide and donated that to collide so that we could have classes.

And 15 chairs means 15 lives at every class that we have this year. Whose lives will be changed because there was a space for them to collide with Jesus. So many people's lives were changed.

A family all chipped in, and the kids even brought their own chore money and allowance money and doubled it, and they got a chicken. For a family who lives in an impoverished village so that they can sell the eggs to be able to go to school.

And I just started thinking, if a few women can have this much impact and influence with leveraging $250 spread out between the 30 of them, I cannot imagine what could happen if every one of us leveraged our whole lives with everything you've got and everything I've got. I cannot imagine what would happen if we lever and our talents and our ideas and our money and our abilities and our resources.

And I want you to begin imagining that with me. And then I want you to do more than imagine. I actually want you to do it with what God entrusts. We get to choose what we will do with it all.

And perhaps that's the craziest thing about this story that Jesus tells. The men in the parable had different responses, and so do we.

Two of the three men take what they've been given and turn it into so much more than it once was. But look at the third guy.

He said to his master, I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. So I was afraid and went out and hid your gold in the grout. See, here is what belongs to you.

See, we get this third guy because it's almost like he's proud for keeping safe what he'd been given. But the master gets flipping ticked off and says, you wicked, lazy servant. The word lazy here means shrinking or hesitating. You shrunk. You hesitated.

You allowed yourself to be held back. And so the master says, though you knew that I harvest where I've not sown and gather where I've not scattered seed.

Well, then you should put my money on deposit with the Maker so that when I returned, I would have received it back with interest. So take the bag of gold from him and give it to the one who has 10 bags. For whoever has will be given more and they will have an abundance.

Whoever does not have even what they have will be taken from them and throw that worthless servant outside into the darkness where there will be weeping, gnashing of teeth. Yikes. This is not the Jesus we like to talk about. Jesus told this story about this master who blows his top. Why was he so upset?

Craig Blomberg, a New Testament scholar, says about this guy who hid what the master gave him. His tragic error laying, allowing himself to be paralyzed by his fear.

Before we get too hard on this guy, let's think about what fear does to our own lives. A few months ago, I got a message on Facebook from a Guy maybe six months ago, who was reaching out about his wife without her permission.

He said he believes in her ability to write, so much so that all he wants to do is see her use her gift, and she isn't. I wasn't sure what he wanted me to do to make that possible, but his belief in her was so beautiful and earnest.

So I said, if you want me to talk to your wife, you're gonna have to tell her about how you went all Secret Squirrel on her and contacted me. So he did, and her and I ended up having lunch one day, and I asked her about her relationship with writing.

See, I have a relationship with writing, too. We have our ups and downs. And I wrote my first book called Willow's Whispers in elementary school and was sent to a young authors conference.

And I have felt called to write a book, and I'm actually sitting on the semblance of one. But fear has me paralyzed to do much with it. And my relationship with writing has always been a fear fest.

And I've made it smaller than it wants to be. And I've tried to shrink back from where I feel called to go. And I've questioned my ability to impact lives writing.

In fact, the first time I was asked to prepare a message and preach it, I ran for the hills. And years after that, it was other people who told me I should start a blog. And I was like, why would anyone want to read what I have to write?

And I think it took a small town to convince me to put out a podcast, because I was like, why would anyone listen to it? And here I am in this room talking to you guys with a message. But I'm still wanting to put out this book, and I. I'm avoiding it.

And I'm trying to muster up the courage because of this amazing group of women surrounding me.

And we started self publishing these amazing Bible study books that we're seeing God use to get into women's deep places in their lives and call them forward towards him and towards healing and hope and being used in the world. And I was so afraid to put those out because they actually have my name on them. And so I can't hide. I can't hide behind the alias collide.

And so fear starts to take over, and all those mean, awful hypotheticals start running laps in my head like I'm not all that gifted or educated or interesting or poetic. And what if I put myself out there and get rejected or dismissed? What if people are like, who are you to write about God in life?

And I Share that, because when I met with this woman for lunch whose husband reached out to me about her using her gift of writing, it was like one fraidy cat eating salad with another. Michelle told me that she had come to some Kaleid conferences and then did our yes, you Bible study that I wrote.

And it was in doing that study that God compelled her to start saying yes to using this gift of writing that she's been given. And I thought, if she only knew how afraid I am.

When I asked her about her relationship with writing, she said she's afraid to write, even though she feels called to do it. She's afraid people will judge her, and she's afraid people will think she's trying to draw attention to herself.

And she's afraid she might not be very good. She's afraid it's selfish, and I push her a little bit. Selfish? You think it's selfish of me to write? I said, and her response was quick, no, never.

Aren't we so much harder on ourselves than we are on others?

I just thought to ask her in that moment, if you knew Adele before she was a big deal and you knew her voice had the capacity to pierce hearts with just one note, but she thought it might be selfish to step out and use her gift because she might get some attention, would you discourage her from using that gift? No, you wouldn't. You would say, adele, you need to sing. We need you to sing. In the same way I said to Michelle that we need Adele to use her gift.

We need you to ride, and we need you to do what you can do no matter how afraid you are.

Michelle had tears welling up as we talked because she knows she needs to come out of hiding because her words have been kept on lockdown since she was a kid. And I know that feeling, too. Ironically, my writing helped inspire hers. And yet her and I are being held back by the same thing right now.

And maybe you are too. And that thing is fear. Fear has such power in our lives that look what it does in the story in Matthew 25. You know what fear's really great at?

I'm gonna take the time to go over the 10 things I think fear is really great at. And the first one is, fear is really great at lying to you. Fear likes to tell you you don't have what it takes.

You're not strong enough, put together enough, educated enough, funny enough, smart enough, secure enough, loved enough, magnetic enough. Fear's favorite hobby is to sit around and lie to you. Fear is the biggest lieback there Ever was. And you know what?

Some of us are believing it's every word missing out on the life we're made for. The second thing fear is really great at is convincing you that you have to be like her.

Fear has you comparing yourself to chicks you think are cooler than you. And your assessment has got you paralyzed because you think you have to be like someone you're not. Fear has you caught up in gift envy.

Fears got you convinced that you'll never do anything really tremendous with your life because you'll never be as pretty, as well liked, or as talented as Jenny. Well, guess what? If you were supposed to be like Jenny, you be her. But you're not her. You're you.

So stop allowing fear to tell you you're supposed to be anyone other than who you are. I know I say it all the time on this podcast, but be you, not her.

The third thing fear's awesome at is handing you your own rap sheet of lame things you've done in the past to keep you from doing great things in your future. You haven't been tight with God. In fact, you've made some pretty lame choices. Plus you always quit.

You have no self control and your motives are selfish and you're not very consistent. You always fail to back your intentions up with. Just look at your past.

The fourth thing is fear is amazing at convincing you that not using what you have is better than losing what you have. Fear will be loud and clear that not trying for success is better than risking failure.

In the man's mind who was given one talent, there was no chance of loss by saving it. But guess what? There was also no chance of gain. Number five. Fear is super great at keeping you smaller than you should be.

You'll find yourself holding tightly to what you have. You want to be like the guy with five.

You want more for your life in its capacity, but you'll always have one as long as you keep hiding, hoarding and holding it out of fear. Number six. Fear messes with God's math. Fear says one put to work equals zero. But Jesus says one put to work equals two. Two put to work equals four.

Four put to work equals eight. When God does our math, things grow exponentially. Talents, impact, resources, pizza, life, change, dollar bills, even chairs.

15 Chairs that collide when grown exponentially become 225 chairs, which become 3,375 chairs, which become 50,625 chairs, which become 7. 375 Chairs, which become 11,390,625 chairs that represent a life, a story, a woman change. So much so that she's now changing other people's life.

But not if fears doing our math, it Fears doing our math. We hold on to one so we don't lose it. And what does one become? It becomes zero. God's math is different than our math.

And the way he calculates is this. If we don't use it, we lose it. Number seven. Fear is the expert at getting you to play it safe. Some of us are like the fraidy cat in a parable.

And we're holding on so tight to what we have so we can hand it back to God exactly as he handed it to us. So we don't move so. But that's just the thing. God doesn't want us to hand him back what he gave us as it was.

He wants to see that we did something with it.

We're so afraid to lose our reputation, our security, our retirement funds, our social life, our house, our figure, our spending money, our weekends, our identity, our leisure, our opportunities, our status, our position and our freedom.

But Jesus assures us that it's in losing what we have and giving it away, spending it and leveraging it, that we, we and the world around us gain so much more. Don't be that guy that lets fear tell him to play it safe. God gave it to you to risk making it more than it already is.

Fear is really great at telling you not to trust your master. Fear tells you that God is unfair. God will be disappointed, and God will take from you what isn't his.

This man in the parable accused the master of such Tell me, what can God reap that he did not first sow in your life? Everything is his. He is the source, the beginning, the creator, the maker, the origin of all things. What did you earn? What did you create?

What did you make? What did you mold or shape that you have that God didn't first originate?

If you say your kids because you had sex, I'm gonna have to remind you where you got your uterus, your Fallopian tubes in your ovaries. We might want to consider changing our view of our master because in this story that Jesus tells, it becomes clear.

It will absolutely determine your view of your master, will absolutely determine the trajectory of your faithfulness, and thus the story your life tells you. Number nine. Fear is amazing at getting you to dig holes and bury things not meant to be put into hiding.

Some of you are hiding your talent and your personality and your wealth and your abilities and even your dreams, and you've dug a metaphorical hole and are burying the very things you've been given to use.

When you hide it and you let it atrophy and you put it on a shelf and let it expire and deem it useless or holding on to just for yourself or you cover it up. You, my friend, you're just like this guy in this passage. So it's time to get out the shovel and start digging.

And number 10, what fear is best at is holding you back. When we're held back, we limit our potential. We worry about failing, we worry about succeeding.

We conserve because we don't think we'll have enough for ourselves if we give it away to others. We don't do what we know we ought to because we might fall flat on our faces with a watching crowd.

We give up on dreams and exchange them for mediocrities. We box ourselves out of greatness because we ruled ourselves out of its reach. We let other people's opinions of us boss our lives around.

We give an old outcome permission to inform all the rest, assuming we can never accomplish what we hope to. Fear loves to keep us believing. Settling is just fine. This right here, right now, is all we will ever be or do. But what if that's not true?

What if there is so much more? So fear has us waiting for the master to return and ask what we did with our life. And when he comes, we will say, oh, wait one second.

I didn't spend it or give it away. I didn't invest it. But maybe just a little. You know what I did? I buried it right here so I could save it and give it back to you just as you left it.

Let me get out my handy dandy shovel and dig it up for you real quick. And this loving master will wander. Oh, dear one, I gave you this one thing to fully spend, fully use, fully give away.

You only get one life and you didn't use it, you saved it. But for what?

I don't know if you've heard the story of the man who was passing by some elephants and was stopped by what he saw, but he noticed that these giant beasts, who weigh between 6 and 13,000 pounds, were tied down in captivity, held back by a small, tiny white rope attached to one leg. How could this be? This man inquired.

Surely an elephant could snap that small rope and break free into the life it desires at the slight force of its giant leg.

So the trainer explained that since a very young age, when elephants are much smaller, they use the same size chain to Tie them up and constrain them. They are trained and conditioned to believe that they cannot break away.

So when they grow up, they believe, though it not be true, that the tiny white rope that now replaced the chain can still hold them back. They will never break free to live the life they were made for, so why even try? You know, I think we're a lot like elephants, you and I.

And I think Jesus knows that. I think God shows up to collide with us because he wants us to break free. We can run, we can do what we dream to do.

We can even handle doing what we don't dream to do, but know we're called to. We're stronger than we think. We're braver than we know. We aren't made to walk in circles. We aren't made to think we're helpless with no escape. We.

We weren't given life to assume this is all there is. We weren't made to settle for insecurities and anxiety and baggage and dysfunction and addiction, self centeredness and slavery.

We weren't given what we've been given to be held back by fear. Jesus knows that we make tiny robes bigger than we are. He knows that we get stuck thinking we aren't as capable as we actually are.

He knows that we have this huge, amazing, vast life waiting for us. But we get stuck, bound by lies in big ways and small. And so we need to do battle with fear right now in our lives.

We need to dig it up and uncover it. Because fear is the rope that holds you back. And here is what I'm learning in my own life.

It has no actual power except for the power you are giving it. And it's when you name fear, it starts to lose its power.

So right now I'm going to ask you, what is it that's got a tight hold on you, so much so that it's keeping you from living the life you were made to live. It looks to me like Jesus would rather you uncover your fears and risk experiencing them than try and salvage what you've got.

It looks to me like Jesus would rather you spend it all, your whole life, every last bit of it, all you've got, then hoard it for yourself to stay safe. And isn't that what Jesus did with his life? It looks to me like Jesus invites you to begin thinking differently than you ever have.

The Bible says in Ephesians 4:23, we need to be made new in the attitude of our minds. And some of you need to allow God to do a complete makeover on how you're seeing your life and its possibilities.

When you see Jesus in the New Testament show up and collide with people, he's always trying to help them see how they being held back. You see that when he runs into religious people held back by their narrow mindsets.

You see that when he runs into the get around girl at the well and she's held back by her own thirst. You see that when he runs into the rich young ruler afraid to lose his wealth in order to help the poor.

Jesus cares so much about humanity being held back. I think that's why he told this parable.

And I can't imagine a more beautiful God than one who shows up and sees us pacing around being held back by a tiny rope that's holding power of us. And we're living in fear because we want to break free, but we're convinced we don't have what it takes.

And I love that the God who made us shows up and not only told stories to unleash people, but lived a story so that you and I would be unleashed by every single rope that binds us. Jesus is a God who says all be held back so you can be unleashed. Go now. Now. Do not let the cross be in vain.

Everything I was given, I gave up for you. I leveraged my life so you can fully live yours. My life for your life. All the things that hold you back, I have taken on.

They are on me and no longer on you. Go break free from the tiny ropes to hold power over you. You, I took them on. They tied me onto the cross. So run.

Run as fast as you can into the life you're made to live. You were not meant to be tied down, held back, or trained to believe your life was meant for captivity.

Some of you are bound up by what someone else told you, by your own mistakes, your own comfort and your own disbelief. You are made for more than that.

Jesus believes this, so much so that it's what all his stories are about and it's what his life and death are about to. Breaking free from fear's grip on our lives starts with us recognizing how much power we're giving the tiny ropes that hold us back.

We have got to be people who believe that the power of God is greater than the power of the rope. Do you believe in God's power? Do you believe that he is big? Do you believe that he's mighty? Do you believe he can break strongholds?

Do you believe he can do something new in your life?

The elephant will break free when it has the audacity to question everything it believes, everything it's been taught, everything it's been made to think it needs for security, and instead believes it has more power than the flipping rope. Jeremiah 10:6 speaks to the power of just God's name. No one is like you, Lord. You are great and your name is mighty. And power.

1St Samuel 10:6 says, the Lord will come powerfully upon a person and they will be changed into a different person. First John 4:4 promises, Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.

We either stay held back or we believe we have a God who can bust us free into the full life we are made to live. The elephant breaks free when the elephant breaks free, break free. That.

That sounds obvious and I know you want something fancier, fancier and deeper and more thought provoking, but that's just it. Literally, the elephant has to move. The key to breaking free is breaking free.

The elephant has to believe it has more power than what ties it down and then act on that belief.

Breaking free looks like you moving your leg that's been tied up way too long by self preservation and safety, worry and anxiety, lies and wrong views of yourself and your gut. Breaking free looks like movement. It looks like digging up what you've buried and coming out of hiding. It looks like writing again.

It looks like trying to fend off your suicidal thoughts with painting again. It looks like showing up to work every day being 100% sure God is going to use you to change lives no matter what it is you get paid to do.

It looks like singing in front of an audience instead of just in the shower. It looks like applying for that job that you dream to do. It looks like giving yourself the permission slip God already gave you to do something big.

It looks like sacrifice and crazily giving away something to bless the socks off someone else, even if it means you go without. It looks like you facing your greatest fears. It looks like no longer listening to the voices that tell you you are meant for less.

It looks like saying, I will no longer live in captivity. It also looks like saying, I will no longer live for myself. Because that. That's just another form of captivity. It's putting out the damn book.

It's giving away part of your inheritance. It's waking up every day and believing God gave your life for purpose.

It's deciding to not let anything that holds power over you hold power over you anymore. Because your God is bigger, your God is stronger, and your God is more powerful than anything tying you down holding you back and then it's acting.

The only thing that will break you free, little elephant, is the belief that God can do what you have been made to believe you can. So my encouragement is that we would break free, friends, from the fear that holds us back.

I hope that you begin to think about what's holding you back.

You begin to think about the power of fear in your lives and allow Jesus to collide with you where you're at and break you free into the life you're made to live. If you have a friend that you know needs to hear this message, will you send it to them right now?

You can be used to help break someone else free by sharing this message. I thank you for coming and hanging out with me on the podcast and we'll catch you next week.

Thanks for tuning in to keep up with us.

You can find us on Instagram at We Collide on Facebook as Collide Women, and you can also visit our website at wecollide.net to find our blog resources, event information, and more. One last thing, if you enjoyed this this episode, would you take a few seconds and leave us a review?

It seems like such a small act, but reviews help us to keep producing this content and help other women find it too. Thanks so much for tuning in to today's episode and letting us walk with you as you seek and collide with Jesus.