Embrace Your Voice by Shala Graham

Today’s COMPEL blog post comes from Encouragement for Today writer and speaker, Shala Graham

Speakers and writers spend a fair amount of time learning from other people who are ahead of us on their journey. We consume their books. We watch their messages on YouTube. We take notes on how they crafted their words. We find ourselves imitating their inflections. We get inspired. We dream. And then it happens: we don’t know our own voice. Worse yet, we no longer think our voice is good enough.

It’s easy to get lost in someone else’s voice.

Lost is where the enemy likes you. When you’re focused on being like someone else, reaching the same audience, with the same message, you no longer pose a threat. What’s the threat? Reaching other people with the unique message that God deposited into your heart for His people. Your message is not for everyone. It is for the people whom God has commissioned you to reach.

I’m reminded of the prophet Ezekiel. Ezekiel 3:1 says, “The voice said to me, ‘Son of man, eat what I am giving you—eat this scroll! Then go and give its message to the people of Israel.’” Though the Lord gave him a stern message that was not going to be received by everyone who heard it, it was the message that God put in his belly that had to go out.

What message has the Lord put in your belly? Trust that God put it there because He intends for your unique voice to deliver it. So embrace your voice. If He wanted someone else to speak it with their special wordsmithing and witty inflections, He would have put it in their belly.

As I began speaking, I came face to face with this challenge. I found myself preparing my message and feeling insecure that I’m not great at illustrations like this person. I don’t cry and hop around the stage like another person. Satan was whispering to me that if I were to be a good speaker that the people could receive, I had to be like the other speakers I knew they liked. But as I prayed through my feelings, I decided to kick those thoughts to the curb. The people don’t need a replica of someone they already have. Their souls required what God put in me to speak and deliver how God designed me to do it. Now, whether I am speaking or writing, I am confident in the voice God gave me. I stay in my lane, and I lean into my strengths.

Father, thank you for making each of us with a unique, Holy Spirit-filled voice. Please help us to lean into what you have put in our belly. Encourage us to embrace the voice and personality that you meticulously crafted in us. Let us walk in our unique anointing. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.