Have you experienced the depths of fear?

Andrea Troyer knows what it’s like to be in the trenches, and that fear kept her from getting baptized for more than 15 years.

Andrea grew up in a Christian home and accepted Christ at the age of five. She knew that baptism was an act of obedience, but she wasn’t ready to make the move.

“Fear really kept me from wanting to get baptized because I was terrified of getting up in front of an audience of people and being dunked under water.”

While attending church at Northwest as a young adult, she knew she needed to ask the Lord to conquer that fear.

That’s exactly what He did. His Word changed and encouraged her to step out in faith.

“When I took that step and was baptized, to say I was overjoyed would be an understatement. That was a huge deal for me.”

Hear more of her baptism story as she shares how God carried her through the roller coaster of fear to a place of obedience. She explains how that obedience brought her freedom.

“Throughout my life, God has walked me through fear, and helped me to conquer it in different stages.”

 

The Full Transcript

So I accepted Christ when I was a young child. I was about five or six. And I was in Awana as a child, in Sparks. And one night after Awana, my dad walked me through the plan of salvation. And I prayed to receive Christ, to ask him to forgive me of my sin, and to receive Christ.

And I just want to thank my parents for placing me in Godly environments where God and his word and other believers were constantly pouring into my life. I was baptized on May 16, 1995 when I was 21 years old. I had started coming to Northwest Bible Church when I was in college. And up until this point, I was not baptized. And I was saved when I was five.

About the point in time when I was 21, and I was attending here at Northwest Bible, I was in college and I was, at that point, really growing in my faith. And it was in college that I was owning my faith and really starting to make the decisions for myself. I knew what I believed, but it was at that point that I was really starting to step out and make choices because they were mine. So I knew right around that point in time that it was time to get baptized.But up until that point, the thing that really was holding me back in my life was fear. And I know a lot of people struggle with fear, but fear really kept me from wanting to get baptized, because I was terrified of getting up in front of an audience of people, and having to get baptized, be dunked under the water. And that was a big deal for me.

And I knew at around that time, when I was 21, that it was time to let the Lord conquer that fear and help me take that step of obedience. So fear held me back, but at that point in time, when I took that step, and I was baptized, to say that I was overjoyed is an understatement. That was a huge deal for me. And I just want God to get all the glory for bringing me up to that point.

I was a very young child, probably around five or six, when I recognized that I really struggled with fear. What I thought inside was probably an abnormal amount of fear. A lot of anxiousness and anxiety. And throughout the course of my life, God has walked me through fear, and helped me to conquer it in different stages. And it’s kind of like, fear is like a roller coaster. You can have highs and lows with it, and that’s the way my story in my life has been. Highs when God has helped me through it, and lows where it’s really beaten me down.

Fear held me back in baptism. Fear has also held me back in a lot of other things too, as well. And at one point in my story, probably just, maybe three or so years ago, the fear and anxiety in my life was so intense that I could barely come to church. And barely even sit in the very back of the sanctuary. Because my social anxiety was so high. I had a hard time coming, and I had a hard time being even able to participate in the service. Even as a Christian I started to wonder, and justify in my head could I just worship God from home? Because the fear in my life was so overwhelming.

I sought God in prayer over it, and read my bible, and begged God to take that fear away. But it didn’t just disappear. But that low point in my life drove me to a placed where I started really reading and studying God’s word like I had never done before. And I began, not just memorizing it, but immersing myself in it, and praying God’s word as if the words were mine, or as if it was written for me, or by me. I made those words mine. But I noticed, as I read God’s word and studied his word, and memorized it, and put it in my heart, that things started to slowly melt away.

And there was a point in time when I felt called again to participate in the worship ministry at church. And as I prayed God’s word, and just let it become a part of me, God started moving that fear back, and helped protecting me, and giving me strength and power. And I am just so thankful for God’s word in my life, and how it has changed me and encouraged me, and I can’t say enough.

God’s word is amazing. If you are sitting out in the audience, and you’re considering baptism, and you wonder, should I do this? Is this the next right step? This is. You need to take it.

If fear is holding you back, you’re not alone. You are not the only one to walk this path, and be afraid to get up in front of others and take this step. This is a step of obedience, and as believers in this body with you, we are cheering you on, and we are rejoicing with you, and we are holding you up in prayer, and we are encouraging you to do this. Because with this step of obedience comes freedom.