Where Does Our Fear Come From

This past Sunday night I spoke to a number of men from different men's groups that was sponsored by Becks Reformed Church. As I prepared for this presentation, and when I finally got to the point of delivering the message that I was there to speak on, I felt a huge sense of inadequacy. I felt I was not qualified to speak before these men about anything.  Last month at this men's gathering there was a decorated war veteran who spoke about his life and his faith; next month there will be a man speaking who has spoken to numerous Fortune 500 companies.  And here I was a little country pastor or "Redneck Pastor" as I call myself standing before about 50 to 60 men of God feeling I was not good enough to speak to them.  As I began the presentation a calmness came over me and I delivered the message in a way that I never had before.  I was confident; recalled material on the spot without searching my material; and the material flowed just as it should. My talk was so well received that a radio host from Winston-Salem ask if I would come on his show in the future to speak on the topic I presented. 

Afterwards I spoke of my uneasiness and feeling of inadequacy to a few of my pastor friends and they showed me just where this fear and apprehension came from: my PRIDE. I have always seen pride as being arrogant, but false humility is also a form of pride. When we have the fear of not being good enough we have taken God out of the picture and we have hindered Him working fully through us.  When we feel we are incapable to do something we feel God is leading us to do because it is not our gift, or we are worried we will mess up, or someone will ask us something we cannot answer; we are relying on our own self and our own knowledge.  For all intense purposes we have taken the power of God out of the situation because we have relied on our own understanding (Proverbs 3:5). Fear comes from Satan and it is his way of keeping us from doing the will of God.  Pride comes from Satan as well and it his tool to tell us we cannot do somethings because we are not qualified to do or that we are not good enough to do what God is asking of us.    I praise God that the enemy did not win his battle with me last Sunday night and that is not because of anything I did, but because the Holy Spirit stepped in and took over for my hinderance of God's will because of my pride.  Trust the Lord and we can all do great things as His vessels and His instruments!