Fear Not: How To Flourish In Your God-Given Talents

Jul 24

Discover how fear can distort reality, hinder spiritual growth, and hold back your God-given talents. Learn how embracing the fear of the Lord can lead to freedom in Christ and enable you to flourish in your gifts. Find inspiration from Scripture and practical steps to cast off the fear of man and embrace God’s plan for your life, living faithfully and confidently in His love and power.

“For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.”

2 Timothy 1:7 Context

Paul wrote our Scripture in a letter to a young man in ministry, Timothy, who was highly gifted and had many talents for the expression of Christ-centered ministry. He was planting new churches, and his ministry edified and strengthened many new believers.

However, Timothy, in his youthfulness, was controlled by his fears. He was timid and intimidated by people who were more spiritually mature than he. This propagation of fear is causing his talents and giftedness to be minimized; they are shutting him down.

Let’s examine what fear does to a believer regarding the gifts and talents Christ has woven into your life.

What Does Fear Do To Your Gifts and Talents?

[READ MORE: What is the Fear of the Lord?]

1) Fear Distorts Reality

“Finally, the servant who had received one talent came and said, ‘Master, I knew that you are a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed. So in my fear, I went and hid your talent in the ground. See, you have what belongs to you.’” Matthew 25:24-25

Fear distorts our reality. Not only is that represented in Timothy’s life, but we also see it in Jesus’ Parable of the Talents. One person buries their talent in fear and doesn’t utilize it.

2) Fear Shuts Doors of Opportunity

“I would have spoken up, but I was afraid of being:”

Misunderstood.
Wrong.
Rejected.
Embarrassed.

Do you hear all the “I’s” there? Fear is rooted in self-consciousness. Often, that cave you fear to enter contains the treasure you were designed to crave and thrive in.

This place of fear is where many people can be blind to the opportunities of faithfulness. The man in the Parable of the Talents buried his gold because of a distorted perspective of God. Yet in that parable, we see Jesus say, “For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.”

3) Fear Leads to Other Sin

A person who is crippled by fear often resents those who are not crippled by fear. And often, as those resentments grow, the crippled person becomes a “blame machine.” “Other people have opportunities that I don’t have.”

The man with the one talent may have been aware of what the people with two and five talents were doing.

JESUS: “Finally, the servant who had received one talent came and said, ‘Master, I knew that you are a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed. So in my fear, I went and hid your talent in the ground. See, you have what belongs to you.’” Matthew 25:24-25

4) Fear Shuts Down Your Spiritual Development

Fear does not merely stunt your growth; fear will shut it down. Fear laces a thousand deceptions into its tangled web.

Fear paralyzes people.
Fear silences people.
Fear isolates people.
Fear makes tiny problems look BIG!
Fear demoralizes.

Medical research tells us that fear can be cyclical and build upon itself. Fear produces additional layers that perpetuate the inaugural fear. Satan has a heyday, as he “steals, kills, and destroys” your God-given purpose as he paralyzes your soul through the dark force of fear.

The enemy’s goal for the believer is to shut down the expression of Jesus’ life and ministry in you and through you!

Why Do We Value Others’ Opinions?

Scripture tells us that no one is perfect except for Jesus. Every character presented in the Bible is flawed, just as you and I are, and that should give you hope! King David wasn’t perfect and was described as a man after God’s heart. There are many characteristics of a believer who has a heart for God, but one is out of the fullness of the heart; the mouth speaks.

In Psalm 118:6, David says, “The LORD is for me; I will not fear; What can man do to me?”

The fruit of this statement is that earthly fear will not overwhelm him because he knows the Lord is for him. His question is rhetorical because he’s holding the Lord in reverence.

We all struggle with proclaiming God’s word at some level. However, God breaks earthly intimidation. That’s what God sought, through the Apostle Paul, to cultivate in Timothy. He wanted him to understand that for him bloom in his gifting, he must hold God in reverence so the governance of people wouldn’t prevent him.

The Enemy uses intimidation to prevent you from releasing your God-given gifts. I’ve watched people with incredible gifts from God move into a spirit of fear and shut down their God-given gifts and talents.

I’ve seen gifted musicians that were too afraid to step out of their comfort zone to honor God with their gift because they feared their talent wouldn’t measure up against someone else.

I’ve seen men and women who are gifted teachers that were able to equip the Body of Christ in all manner of creative ways, but they were held back due to fear.

Fear of people is a symptom of the importance we place on ourselves over the revelation of God. We value the opinion of our peers more than the importance of God.

The “fear of man” is not simply the fear of the harm people may do to us; instead, it is “the fear of losing the favor of people, their love, goodwill, help, and friendship.” And if we are not wise, it can become “an idol of approval.”

Miserable as it is, the fear of men is the soul’s default setting. Listen to how the Apostle Paul describes a Christ-less person: “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” If the Apostle Paul was writing the New Testament in your lifetime, is that something he would say about you?

Even believers can choose to warm themselves at the fire of acceptance, just as the Apostle Peter did the night he betrayed Jesus in His suffering. Fearing man and choosing muteness for our witness of Christ prevents us from living fully into His glory.

So, what are we to do? How do we cast off the fear of man and lay hold of the fear of the Lord?

[READ MORE: Receiving God Over Fear]

How to Cast Off the Fear of Man?

The prophet Isaiah gives us the gospel remedy as He described Jesus: “And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD.”

Romans 8 teaches that God is cultivating in all believers a conformity to the image of Jesus, and the fear of God marked His life. He never worried about what people thought of Him.

His singular goal was to bring honor to His heavenly Father. He never compromised for gain. He took the hard road of the cross to bear the sin of our fear of man. Jesus’ heart was so full of the fear of the Lord that He was “despised and rejected by men.”

But when we look to Him in faith and repentance, we receive the forgiveness of our sins and the Holy Spirit with which He was filled. When we trust Christ by faith alone, in His grace alone, the Holy Spirit begins to produce in us “the fear of the Lord.”

In Matthew 10:28, Jesus teaches, “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”

The same Jesus who taught us to “love thy neighbor” is the same Jesus who teaches us to “Fear the Lord.” The Apostle Paul not only instructs but models what it means to be set free from the fear of man.

“For am I now seeking the approval of man or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.” Galatians 1:10

Trying to be a “people-pleaser” is in vain in the first place. Theologian Richard Baxter said, “Seek first to please God and be satisfied that you have but One to please instead of multitudes. Because a multitude of masters are harder to please than One.

Your Best Life is Coming

As a reminder, this isn’t your best life; that’s what’s coming next. Your best life is coming in the new creation. If you don’t know Jesus, then yes, this is your best life, but if you do, then you can’t possibly live your best life now.

I share this because when Paul is investing in Timothy to forsake timidity, he is affirming the reality that we live in a broken world. We’re all navigating our fallenness and weaknesses, including the default mode of being afraid of what people think. Paul reminds Timothy this is not his best life because fear and intimidation have shut down his God-given gifts.

Paul writes to Timothy: “For this reason, I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands.”

If you’re going to fan a flame, you need something substantive to bring warmth and illumination from that fire. To fan the gifts of Christ in your heart and life, you need to give it attention. You need the oxygen of the Holy Spirit blowing upon the embers of your heart. You need the kindling of the Word of God.

Whether your gifts are healing, teaching, administration, hospitality, creativity, etc., move beyond timidity! Move into the gift that God has placed in your life.

One day Jesus will ask us what we did with our gifts, and we will have to give account. God has not given you a spirit of timidity; That is not God. However, God has given you a spirit of love, power, sound, and judgment!

Rise, Body of Christ! Flame your gifts, believe Him and rise into your gifting and manifest the love of Christ, not just in your church but in your city and nation.

TL;DR

In 2 Timothy 1:7, Paul encourages Timothy to overcome his fears and embrace the gifts God has given him.
Fear distorts reality, shuts doors of opportunity, leads to other sins, and hinders spiritual development.
The fear of man can prevent believers from using their God-given gifts.
To cast off the fear of man, focus on the fear of the Lord as Jesus did.
Your best life is yet to come, so don’t let fear hold you back from expressing Christ’s love through your gifts.
Rise, embrace your gifts, and impact your community with the love of Christ.