Fear: The Moses Syndrome

Moses, one of my favorite character in the bible portrays the perfect example of my fear before. As what the Genesis accounts share, He was afraid in being in front of an audience. If you would remember, Moses met the Great “I AM” through a burning bush and with all God has told him, the first fear he had was that he doesn’t know how to speak.

I remember as a 15 year old teenager, our youth adviser would ask anyone from the youth to either share a testimony, pray in front or become the emcee for the activity and everyone would hide, including me. I often ran outside and wait for the affair to start literally because I was afraid to be in front. 

I was afraid to make mistakes. Although I had the passion to share God’s word, I was afraid . Like Moses, I was in the dilemma of trusting that the God who gave me these gifts is able to help me through thick and thin. 

Based on my experience, we don’t want to get involved  because we are all afraid to make mistakes. We fear that people will laugh at us with our grammar, or the way we walk or whatever our mind would tell us everytime an opportunity comes up. I missed those first few opportunities because I decided to dwell on my fear rather than asking God's courage and wisdom.

Overcoming fear will help us gain self-confidence and trust the Lord with our present need. It is only when we trust the Lord wholly that we can truly understand the Lord's word to the Israelites in Isaiah 41:10 -

So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

After that opportune time when I first said “yes” to the invitation to facilitate that the Lord developed my self-confidence in being in front. Of course, there were times that I was pretty much afraid but there were a lot of times of humbling down before the Lord and asking for His much grace and anointing. It was a tough decision back then but it was God's way of letting me understand that it's not because of me or what I can do but it's because of His grace I am able to stand in front.

Like Moses, it only took trust to change all that. There are a lot of reasons to say “No” but there are good reasons to say “Yes” to these exciting opportunities. Moses was afraid to become God’s spokesman because He didn’t know how to speak but God dismissed that notion. When Moses decided to say yes to the Lord, He led the people of Israel out of Egypt, defeating the tyrannical Pharaoh and signs and wonders followed from then on.

Although I still experience the butterflies, I seldom say “No” when asked to be in front of a crowd because like Moses, signs and wonders does follow to those who believe and obey to God's calling.