"All in the Brain" for the Workplace

by,

Charles Ligon

“God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:7).
Occasionally I struggle with bouts of insecurity and fear. These times begin with one little doubt, one little nagging fear, but over time, these feelings begin to build on themselves and snowball to the point of becoming almost debilitating. Eventually, the Holy Spirit speaks through my wife and prescribes a heavy dose of Truth with instructions to stand on God’s many promises. My dad used to have a saying…“it’s all in the brain”. Indeed, it is! The enemy attacks us in an area of weakness…our thoughts (i.e. our minds). Please understand that I know my security and hope is in Christ and in Him alone. Every day I strive to work as unto the Lord and to serve Him as I serve others. However, like so many workplace believers, I occasionally need words of affirmation. If those words don’t come, in time, the enemy gets a foothold in my thought life and I begin to doubt. The doubts give way to fear and I begin to struggle.

Perhaps you have the same struggle. Perhaps you experience paralyzing self-doubt. Perhaps that doubt leads to insecurity and you start to wonder if you’re good enough or smart enough. You start to question whether your job is on the line or if your employer still has confidence in you. Eventually, you may question your worth, your purpose and even whether you are making a difference at work.
Since most of us find our confidence in people-pleasing and performance-based living (i.e. we’re goal-oriented!), these thoughts can easily weasel their way into our minds. Eventually we start to believe what our mind is telling us and our ability to effectively live out our faith at work is hindered. What do we do? It is essential that we replace our lack of self-confidence with a lasting God-confidence. When self doubt enters our minds, we must acknowledge that it is not from God. We must take captive those thoughts (II Cor. 10:5) and rest in the security of God’s promises because He created us (Genesis 1:27), He loves us (John 3:16) and has called us according to His purposes (Romans 8:28).

Our workplace challenge is to stop entertaining wrong thoughts and to know that God highly affirms our value. Consider all He’s done to demonstrate how much we matter to Him and start to live confidently within our God-given purpose. Work every day heartily as unto the Lord (Colossians 3:23) and make today count for His Glory!