Each week, my students in Public Speaking at Azusa Pacific Online University respond to a prompt relating to the challenges of speaking in public. Their thoughts on the topic of confidence prompted these thoughts. All of us face the cloud of failure, real or imagined, that strips our confidence when we speak. I want to thank each of my students for their candor in this discussion. I am confident that God will use this diverse group for His glory.
When it comes to confidence,
I believe each of us could share a story that would explain why we struggle
with confidence when speaking. This is especially true when it comes to sharing
our faith with others. It may be that you found yourself stumbling over words
as you tried to share your faith with a coworker or maybe you chose to stay
silent when the opportunity was there to speak. Some of us have felt the waves
of guilt when we have failed. Do not let the weight of your failure overwhelm
you. We can learn from each experience in our lives. God is not dependent on
our perfection to accomplish His purpose. Consider these examples of failure:
And I, brethren, when I came
to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you
the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus
Christ and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much
trembling. And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of
human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith
should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.
(I Corinthians 2:1-5)
(I Corinthians 2:1-5)
Paul himself declared that he did not come with excellence of speech but declaring the testimony of God. What is the testimony of God? Jesus Christ (If you have seen me, you have seen the Father!). Notice what Paul's message was: Jesus Christ and Him crucified. While there is a place to inform others what God has accomplished in your life and what God has done to transform your life, Paul seems to be telling us that that power of God and the power of the gospel is in the conveying of the story concerning the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ (Rom. 1:16; 1 Cor. 1:18; 1 Cor. 15:1-4). The confidence that we convey should be in the gospel and the finished work of Jesus Christ, not in our stories or tales about what we have experienced. When I share, I have learned to take inventory on the times I talk about me and the amount of time I talk about Jesus and the cross. When I focus on the cross, it is easier, more decisions are made and the person I am sharing with appears to be more interested. It will be always easier to talk about our accomplishments because pride is always easier than humbling ourselves. But, the realization is that we will never save anyone. Only the gospel and the story about Jesus will save. May God provide His Spirit to empower us with His story and His grace and allow us to point the way. Now that is confidence!
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