Posers
I sought the Lord and he answered me. He delivered me from all my fears.
Psalm 34:4
Jake was known for motivating the less confident to greatness. Standing behind the lectern, he exuded confidence. He had this crowd of thousands laughing. They were listening intently, hanging on his every word. His delivery received frequent applause, energizing him to bring it home for them.
As he began his closing comments, Jake began to stutter. You could see real fear grip him as his words began to pile up on one another. The more he stammered, the worse it got. In a span of sixty seconds, Jake went from well-known motivational speaker to a stumbling, broken man.
He never finished his speech; he couldn’t get off the platform fast enough. His past had surfaced, he was found out, and the façade he had lived out over the last decade had failed him. Jake would eventually recover from his humiliation. God led him to a good Christian counselor who would eventually guide him through his embarrassment to a place of understanding and healing.
It was two years before Jake returned to the speaking circuit. When he did, he possessed a newfound confidence. His foundation had changed. Gaining this level of confidence had required Jake to admit he had been posing for many years. In his shame, Jake had learned to compensate for something he saw as repulsive; he pretended to be someone he wasn’t. He locked the “little loser” away. Through counseling, Jake came to discover the truth; he wasn’t a loser. A traumatic event had occurred in his childhood, resulting in his inability to articulate his thoughts.
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Learning the truth set Jake free. Unresolved, his stuttering had held him captive. Satan wants nothing less than to hold us captive.
Posing is a widespread epidemic. Some don’t recognize they are posing; some know and don’t want others to find out. God wants us to learn to be ourselves, the wonderful child He created. He wants to deliver us from the lies of the enemy and tell us who we really are.
Prayer
“I need healing and closure to these unpleasant, even horrible events in my life, Lord. Deliver me from the fear that grips my heart! Please answer my prayer, Papa. In Jesus’ Name, amen.”
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