Facing your fears with Rob Patz

2019 April SGNScoops Publisher’s Point By Rob Patz

Welcome to the April’s Publisher’s Point. I’m Rob Patz and this month I want to get very real and personal with you about the last few years of my life, and to be honest with you, probably even longer than that. I have not always been good at facing my fears. I will tell you that at times I’ve avoided my fears as much as possible and done as much as I could to steer clear of them.

Have you ever looked at the definition for fear?

“An unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain, or a threat.”

I will tell you this: Over that time I experienced an incredible amount of unpleasant emotions, mostly out of fear that I would fail, or that people would think I had failed, when in reality the failure was not facing the fear straight on.

Over the last few weeks, I have truly been seeking God over some decisions that I will be making over the next few months, one of which I will be announcing in May on our website. Be watching for that! My hesitation to do the things that I needed to do was based in fear.

Many of us who are in ministry or in business are at times crippled by fear, or we are crippled by the fact that we might fail. We’re crippled by the fact that our ministry might be looked at as different because we make a bold decision.

Recently in a quiet time with God, he told me it was time to face my fears because in those times I would grow and learn from what he was going to teach me. I will tell you this, I still have a fear that someone will look at what I do as crazy or that someone else will think that I am a failure, but that is not it at all nor what we should worry about. We should worry about doing what God has called us to do and not worry about what man might say. I know that’s easier said than done. But it’s something that I have been practicing over the last few weeks; learning to understand my own fear and then realizing I can move forward past it.

Love these verses in Luke 12:22-26:
“Do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn, yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds! Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?”

So let me challenge you as we come to the mid part of 2019, that whether you’re in business or in ministry: Face your fears. Set your face towards your fears, and learn how to overcome them, because he that is in you is greater than he that is in the world.

When we realize that fear does not come from God, we can begin to conquer many of the things that look like stumbling blocks in front of us.

Hey, I want you to be with us at Creekside 2019 in Pigeon Forge, Tenn., Oct. 27 – 31.  Please contact me about your hotel room, and come and enjoy over 50 great artists and five great days of gospel music!

This is the April Publisher’s Point.

By Rob Patz.

First published in SGNScoops Magazine April 2019.