Foolish Fear

“I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.” 1 Corinthians 2:3-5 NIV

Talking about God can be very intimidating. I get nervous and afraid that I’ll say the wrong thing or will turn people off to God. I try to think of ways to say things right but nothing sounds good enough when I try to rehearse the dialogue. I find that it is in these moments, when I allow myself to get caught up in the anxiety of getting it perfect, that I often skip the opportunity that God has given me to share Him with others.
       We make it more difficult than it has to be. Telling stories about anyone else isn’t half as hard. It’s actually pretty easy when you think about it. So why do we make talking about God so difficult?
       I know one major thing for me is a fear of people’s reactions. But I rarely think about that when I tell people stories about others that I love. The majority of the time, I only fear someone’s reaction to me talking about someone else if the person I’m talking about has a questionable character or has something that can be disliked about them. God is beautiful and perfect. He is good, but not like the world’s good, He is on an unreachable level, totally self-sacrificing, merciful, and tender good. How can me talking about those amazing qualities go wrong? How could anyone think negatively about a God like that?
       -_- It’s the world and Satan’s doing. They put up negative images of God and twist the truth so that it bends into harder to unravel untruths.
       I feel the pressure when I think about this. I am trying to speak truth to people who are immersed in a culture that likes to make a buffet out of God. They can pick and choose what they want to believe, so unless you actually go out and read His word for yourself, it’s hard to understand that He isn’t spiteful or bipolar. His character isn’t constantly changing-you’d think so from the different ways people talk about Him.
       He loves you. He hates you. He’s saved you. You’re going to hell.
       Yeah, it’s scary to think that what I say about God can either turn people to the truth and help them to finally see, or reinforce every lie or negative image that that person has been exposed to concerning God’s character. Reading these verses helped me though.
       Paul was an amazing missionary. He shared the truth about God with the people he encountered and many came to know the Lord because of his dedication. But he was afraid! That’s amazing to me. He evangelized to so many in this fear and still turned people to God. He didn’t know the perfect words to say. He just trusted God to use him.
       This made me realize, it’s not my job to be wise or persuasive. I must simply be a willing vessel for God to work through.
       Simple enough. So this time I ask rhetorically, what’s there to be so afraid of? I don’t have to know everything, just Him. Even in that He’ll help me. He will give me the right words, no matter how simple they are, and He will use them to blossom something beautiful in the hearts of those who listen.
       Fear is foolish. He’s commissioned us to share the truth about Him. Why would he desert us in the mission He has set before us? (He wouldn’t.)