{"id":35182,"date":"2023-03-23T03:30:18","date_gmt":"2023-03-23T10:30:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/?p=35182"},"modified":"2023-03-21T17:29:46","modified_gmt":"2023-03-22T00:29:46","slug":"march-23-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/2023\/03\/23\/march-23-2023\/","title":{"rendered":"March 23, 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"fusion-fullwidth fullwidth-box fusion-builder-row-1 has-pattern-background has-mask-background nonhundred-percent-fullwidth non-hundred-percent-height-scrolling\" style=\"--awb-background-position:center top;--awb-background-repeat:repeat-y;--awb-border-radius-top-left:0px;--awb-border-radius-top-right:0px;--awb-border-radius-bottom-right:0px;--awb-border-radius-bottom-left:0px;--awb-flex-wrap:wrap;\" ><div class=\"fusion-builder-row fusion-row\"><div class=\"fusion-layout-column fusion_builder_column fusion-builder-column-0 fusion_builder_column_1_6 1_6 fusion-one-sixth fusion-column-first\" style=\"--awb-bg-size:cover;width:16.666666666667%;width:calc(16.666666666667% - ( ( 4% ) * 0.16666666666667 ) );margin-right: 4%;\"><div class=\"fusion-column-wrapper fusion-flex-column-wrapper-legacy\"><div class=\"fusion-clearfix\"><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"fusion-layout-column fusion_builder_column fusion-builder-column-1 fusion_builder_column_3_4 3_4 fusion-three-fourth fusion-column-last\" style=\"--awb-padding-top:40px;--awb-padding-right:10px;--awb-padding-bottom:40px;--awb-padding-left:10px;--awb-bg-size:cover;width:75%;width:calc(75% - ( ( 4% ) * 0.75 ) );\"><div class=\"fusion-column-wrapper fusion-flex-column-wrapper-legacy\"><div class=\"fusion-text fusion-text-1\"><p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-34929\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/2-Dear-Abigail-Template-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/2-Dear-Abigail-Template-200x133.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/2-Dear-Abigail-Template-400x267.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/2-Dear-Abigail-Template-600x400.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/2-Dear-Abigail-Template-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/2-Dear-Abigail-Template-800x533.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/2-Dear-Abigail-Template-1200x800.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/2-Dear-Abigail-Template-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/2-Dear-Abigail-Template-scaled.jpg 2560w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\" \/><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Dear Abigail,<br \/>\nI am a really shy person and trying to talk to others about my faith is very difficult for me. I don\u2019t want to be disobedient, but, like Jonah, I want to run. Is there any hope for me? How do I overcome my fear?<br \/>\n<em>-Fraidy Cat<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Dear Fraidy,<\/p>\n<p>There is always hope for someone willing to be used by God! You can be confident that God will honor your obedience, even if you don\u2019t immediately see the results.<\/p>\n<p>You asked how to overcome fear. First, recognize that you are talking about what <strong>God<\/strong> has said and done, which takes the pressure off of you.<\/p>\n<p>Second, preparation will smooth that tongue-tied feeling and build your confidence. Practice sharing your faith in five minutes or less with a trusted friend, family member, or even an animal. Then see if you can do it in three minutes or less, focusing on the main points.<\/p>\n<p>Another strategy is to focus on some good thing God has done recently. Share it with a close Christian friend. Then share it the same way with others, highlighting God\u2019s good work in it.<\/p>\n<p>Every time you share about God will make the next time a little easier.<\/p>\n<p>And if you fail, ask God for another chance; He gave one to Jonah! Don\u2019t forget to pray for boldness, even the apostle Paul did that!<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cAnd take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God; praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints\u2014and for me, <strong>that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly <\/strong>to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in it <strong>I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak<\/strong>.\u201d<\/em> (Ephesians 6:17-20)<\/p>\n<\/div><div class=\"fusion-clearfix\"><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-women"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p92wjD-99s","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35182"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35182\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35183,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35182\/revisions\/35183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}