Fear Holds Us Back When Looking To God

Fear is always the enemy of faith.

“For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of sound mind.” 2 Timothy 1:7

Way back in the day when I was a junior in high school I had the opportunity to go to Boys State. It was held in Conway at UCA and I had a blast. We had several “dignitaries” come visit including then-Governor Bill Clinton. Kinda felt bad for him because it was at the same time he had just passed a teacher testing law and a good number of the kids at Boys State were sons of teachers. So, all of the questions were about that one particular topic.

As leader of my unit, I had the opportunity to ask a question for my group. I was third from the last on the list. I had prepared a question about state sponsored scholarships for college kids. Our group stayed up most of the night getting the wording right and having me rehearse it.

The first question was about teacher testing. And the second. And the third and the fourth and so on and so on. Governor Clinton after about the seventh or eighth question said that he had talked enough about the subject and wanted to have questions on another topic.

Maybe he didn’t know that all of the kids had stayed up all night rehearsing their questions.

So when it came to the next kid he stammered and said “Uh” a few times. Finally you could see his group whispering to him and with a resolved face he asked his question.

It was about teacher testing.

Governor Clinton grimaced and walked off stage. I was the next in line. I stood there for a long while. I didn’t know what to do. I looked back at my group and they all just shrugged. After a bit. A very long uncomfortable bit. Our leader came out and said that we were dismissed for dinner.

Oh man, was my group mad. We went to dinner talking about how horrible it was that he had left. Then they all started to say how good the question would have been and how we would have shown all the other groups.

Little did they know I was scared to death. I didn’t want to get up in front of everyone and ask a ques- tion. Not out-loud at least. And to be quite honest I was a bit relieved.

I quite often see that sense of relief when I ask for volunteers to pray at a large group. I know that they’re ready to do it, but they’re all cringing inside scared to death that they’ll have to be the one. God gave to us a spirit of power. Learning to pray with a group for people who love you no matter how much you stutter and stammer should be a blessing. So next time you have the opportunity, don’t be timid.