It's Not About You!

"It's not about you!" are the words I heard clearly in my head as I was sitting in church, trying to calm the nerves that were bubbling up in my chest. It was almost time for me to get up in front of the church and share, but I still didn't have a clear idea of what I was going to talk about.

You see, since I was a young girl, I had a fear of speaking publicly. My voice would shake uncontrollably, probably because my whole body would be trembling. My mind would go blank and I would lose all train of thought, stumble over my words, and turn bright red from embarrassment. To put this into perspective for you, I even have a hard time praying out loud by myself, in a small group and definitely not in a large group. I tend to enjoy being the person in the background, giving support and following directions. Not the person at the front of the church sharing!

But here I was!

In that moment when I could feel my heart about to beat out of my chest, I said a desperate prayer to God saying, "If you want me to get up and share, Lord, you will have to calm these nerves and also give me the words to speak!" Right after praying this, I heard these words

"IT'S NOT ABOUT YOU!"

Instantaneously my nerves calmed and my heart stopped trying to escape my chest. He brought me out of myself in that moment and I couldn't help but smile, shake my head and offer a quick prayer of thanksgiving. He gave me the words to share my heart that day and He was gracious enough to take all my nerves away.

I came to that church service fully prepared to just play a video clip instead of actually speaking, but God had other plans and all I had to do was have a little faith and put my trust in Him, and remember that - It's not about me, but about Him.