Why is it that whenever God gives me a job to do I always allow myself to get all worked up into a frenzy?
My biggest fear in the world is speaking in public.
Tomorrow is Compassion Sunday at my church and in order to present the kids waiting for sponsors I am going to have to speak in public.
Last week I was feeling excited for the opportunity to share these children with my church and was not feeling nervous at all.
But then Wednesday afternoon the child packets arrived…
Suddenly things felt different.
Suddenly I felt a huge responsibility to those children.
Within a matter of an hour of receiving the packets I began feeling nervous. By that evening, I began rethinking what I had planned to say in church on Sunday. I soon began writing down a plan and I began practicing what I was going to say over and over. Before I realized what was happening I had myself so worked up that each time I practiced, instead of getting better at what I was going to say I began to get worse.
Yesterday I thought about it some more, changed my presentation again, settled on what I thought was my finished product a few more times, and then finally ended up going to bed very late last night feeling sick to my stomach and panicky at the thought of speaking in front of the church on Sunday.
HELLO social anxiety!
Did you forgot that you don’t live here anymore??!
After a restless night, I woke up this morning with God’s voice in my head saying, “stop worrying about what YOU can’t do and instead, remember what I CAN do!”
Suddenly I realized that I just needed to chill out and I needed to give this worry to God! Nothing here has changed except I seemed to have forgotten God is the one who is in charge of all this.
I have already been in this place way too many times in the past so ya think I would have known the drill by now.
So like I have done every time I set out to talk in public, I took out a piece of paper and wrote on it the words, ‘I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.‘ I threw all my extra notes in the trash and put it all back into his hands.
Tomorrow instead of a bunch of notes in my hand I will hold his words as a reminder.
From this day forward when it comes to the God stuff, I have to remember not to spend my time thinking about what I should be spending my time praying about!
Update… Somehow I forgot to push publish on this post last night so figure I may as well finish the story with what happened today.
So I went to bed last night in peace and then woke up this morning with this crazy notion in my head that because we already have so many child sponsors in our church most likely we would not have many kids sponsored today. Yep, you guessed it I was already thinking way too much again! Thankfully I caught myself and went for a drive before church and prayed.
God set me straight and I arrived at church excited and knowing in my heart that God was going to make something big happen today. Sure enough, I soon found myself with a front row seat watching as another one of his amazing stories began being played out before me!
From our worship pastor starting us off speaking his own sponsorship story to our pastor’s Compassion tailored sermon everything went great. It wasn’t about any of us presenting the story today as much as it was about God uniting his children with one another.
27 children received new sponsors today but also at the same time 27 sponsors also received new children.
Many blessings are in the making for all those involved I’m sure.
There was never any need to be nervous or worry.
No need to second guess.
Just show up is all that was required … because just like He always does, God also showed up in a mighty big way in our church today!
If you would like more information about sponsoring a child or Compassion Sunday visit www.compassionsunday.com or contact me through the contact link at the top of this page.
Thanks for reading and have a great week!
A Story By Me 
He always shows up when we need Him!
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🙂 Thanks for reading Mary and have a wonderful day!
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Praise God!! I love that 27 kids were sponsored! Such a great reminder that God is the one who brings the sponsorships even when we’re nervous or feeling inadequate.
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The total ended up being 31! with 4 more getting sponsored the following Sunday 🙂 God does truly amazed me all of the time! Thanks for reading and commenting.
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What a wonderful demonstration T of God’s Love both for the Children and for You and yes worry is not a gift from Him, it’s of our carnal flesh and often stops the Inner Joy we have. Ron use to say when we first met that I would worry if I had nothing to worry about and it was True and I use to also add to a problem with extra things that I imagined could go wrong but God tells us not to worry about tomorrow and reassures us He is with us just as you showed so beautifully in your message above.
Do I still worry T, well I’m not Perfected in Love yet even though I’m aiming for it as God tells us to do which we can see confirmed in the Scriptures below, these are not about Worldly perfection which we can never achieve but at least I no longer look for things to worry about, there is enough already, yes we are living in a fallen world that is soon to end but we do not walk alone and as you showed T, God is bigger than any Problem we have.
Matthew 5:48 Be ye therefore Perfect, even as your Father which is in Heaven is Perfect.
Hebrews 6:1 Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto Perfection not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God,
2 Corinthians 7:1 Having therefore these promises dearly beloved let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit Perfecting Holiness in the fear of God.
2 Timothy 3:16-17 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for Doctrine, for Reproof, for Correction, for Instruction in Righteousness: That the man of God may be Perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.
2 Timothy 2:19-21 Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are His. And, let every one that nameth the Name of Christ depart from iniquity. But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honour, and some to dishonour. If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the Master’s use, and prepared unto every good work.
1John 4:17-19 Herein is our Love made Perfect that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as He is so are we in this world. There is no fear in Love; but Perfect Love casteth out fear because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made Perfect in Love. We Love Him because He first Loved us.
2 Corinthians 13:11 Finally, brethren, farewell. Be Perfect, be of good comfort be of one mind, live in Peace and the God of Love and Peace shall be with you.
“Christ”ian Love Always – Anne.
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Anne first let me start by saying, I apologize for never replying back to this. I read your comment on my phone a long time ago and meant to answer back when I got to a computer but then by time I did that it totally slipped my mind!
Thanks so much for your comment and the scripture, your sharing, and also for your encouragement. Isn’t it wonderful to know we never have to worry if we put all of our faith in God? 🙂
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