(Originally sent out as an article under Eagles' Simply Proclaim) I’ve spent most of my life dreading public speaking. Stage fright is natural, but watching great speakers, I had a hard time believing that they too started out like me—uncertain and afraid of making a bad impression. “Dude, you’re sure to bomb,” I kept hearing in my head. But in molding me to become a speaker, God showed me that the oft-cited fear of public speaking can be a good thing—you just have to channel it in the right way. It never really goes away, so you might as well use it to your advantage! Forget the old bromide of picturing the audience in their underwear. Here are three fears that once paralyzed me—and once I thought of them in the right way, freed me to speak with greater vitality and authority than ever. 1. Fear of Misrepresenting the Word of God The more I learn about the Scriptures, the more I realize how little I have grasped its incredible depths. Charles Spurgeon grasped this when he wrote, “