What's Holding You Back?
What do you have trouble believing?
Maybe you’ve heard people say, “I’m not an exercise person.” “I’m simply not good with money.” “I’ve never been creative.” “God knows, I’m not a leader.” “You know, I don’t really matter that much.”
Most of us are all too familiar with the little voice in our heads that whispers such things to us. They’re called limiting beliefs, and they reveal a dark quirk of the human mind. We can fall into a habit of thinking that is false and degrading, realize it on some level, yet steadfastly refuse to give it up.
True for Us
There are a surprising number of PhD’s who don’t think they are very smart or parents of beloved, chronically ill children who say they aren’t very caring. Of course, these things are not true, but when we rehearse them over and over again in our minds, they become true for us. We start operating that way.
It’s called conditioning. To learn more about this process, a group of researchers placed a large pike and many minnows in an aquarium. Pike is a game fish that is normally found in fresh water, and it thrives on minnow dinners. Naturally, the pike gobbled up those little minnows in a heartbeat.
Getting Nowhere
Scientists then put a pane of glass across the middle of the aquarium to separate the new minnows added on one side of the glass from the pike on the other side.
Instinctively, the pike would run up to the glass trying to get the minnows and violently hit his head, getting nowhere. He’d see the minnows, but he couldn’t get to them.
Sometime later, the scientists pulled out the glass, but the pike didn’t eat a single one.
Eventually the pike died of starvation, even as minnows swam around him and bumped into his head and mouth. He had been conditioned to believe he could no longer eat them.
The Pane
What is the pane of glass across the middle of your mind that makes you believe you can’t do something?
Does it come from what someone told you a long time ago? Some painful event in your past? Some failing that keeps dogging your thoughts and undercutting your confidence? Scripture says,
“For as [a person] thinks in [one’s] heart, so is [that person].”
Proverbs 23:7 (NKJV)
Grow into It
It’s been said, “When we argue for our limitations, we get to keep them.” But I like how a pastor I heard follows that up, “When we agree with God about our potential, we grow into it.”
What is the single greatest limiting belief in your life?
Once that is clear, ask yourself these questions:
Has this ever been true?
Is it true now?
What is holding me back from letting go of this false and degrading belief?
When you’ve answered that last question, open your hands with your palms up, and say, “God, I’ve held on to this belief far too long. I’m letting go of it now. I humbly ask you to remove it from my life.”
That’s a prayer God loves to answer.
What’s a Disciple of Jesus?
The question stopped me in my tracks. I thought everybody knew, but the only response we had was “A little of this and a little of that. We know one when we see one.” Not helpful.
That one question led me and others on a quest to help people discover what a deeply devoted disciple looks like and how to make one. (Hint: it involves spiritual practices that revolve around six “G” words.)
Kinda Christian: From Curious to Serious About Jesus, United Methodist Edition, released January 27, 2026. It offers an authentic pathway to become a deeply devoted disciple and includes additional reflections from six United Methodist Bishops on the six marks of disciple.
Catch more on this recent podcast episode of Compass.
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