Speaking publicly give you chills? Actually, it’s probably not the public speaking in itself, it’s the anticipation of speaking publicly that you have to wait for with not enough time to prepare nor enough time to get into your comfort zone. Maybe you thrive at public speaking. What really plagues you is the intimate hard conversations with people where you cannot veil yourself behind a throng of masses.
The following night the Lord stood near Paul and said, Take courage! As you have testified about me in Jerusalem, so you must also testify in Rome. (Acts 23:11 NIV)
Paul was brought to trial before his peers and just spoke with the passion of Jesus Christ burning inside of him. He was speaking to a group of people who held themselves more righteous than the rest and he became infuriated by their hypocrisy. But, his ferocious condemnation of evil unleashed an unjustifiable wrath against him. God speaks to Paul, in probably a moment of regret– if he would only have kept his mouth shut, he would have walked away less scathed. I mean, but that’s how many of us feel after we deal with a hard conversation or when we’re speaking in public– we feel like we should have some things but not other things. Moreover, we feel as if we should have done better to keep our mouths shut. In many cases, it may have been wiser to just shut our mouths and say nothing. But I’m talking about situations where when we opened our mouths, it was for a purposeful reason– to advocate or fix something– it just ends up biting us in, what it feels like, our large behinds. Rest assured, when we speak in truth and in regards to objective justice, not that nonsense you believe to be right by you, your courage will take you a long way. Jesus stood near Paul and said, “take courage.” We need that courage when we speak righteously in the name of God. Let’s ask God for that courage to speak into the world around us and wherever life takes us next.
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