Fear No More || 10.29.2022

2 Timothy 1:7 says, “For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love, and self-discipline.” God does not give us a spirit of fear but of power, love, and a sound mind. That may sound familiar to you. Today, I want to focus on what fear is and then focus on the things God gives us to remove the fear.

Fear is an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain or a threat. Fear is the feeling we get when we imagine that someone will hurt us or something will cause pain for us. This feeling is a good thing because it makes us aware of what’s going on around us and helps us prepare for what will happen. If we live in that Spirit of fear, though, it can make us anxious, afraid, and unwilling to take risks. Instead, God gives us three different spirits to focus on: power, love, and self-discipline.

Power is the ability to do something or act in a particular way, especially as a faculty or quality. Power is the ability to do or act the way you need to. God gives us the ability to do or act how we need to at the moment. This power may be doing something that is outside of our comfort zone. This power may be saying something that other people may not like or want to hear. This power may be hard for us to carry around, but God stays with us. God gives us the Spirit of power and walks with us as we use this power. God is there to comfort us if we struggle to hold this power. God is there to guide us to use our power correctly. God is there to celebrate with us or to console us with the results of using our power. We can misuse power if it lies in the wrong hands, but we can use the power for His glory in God’s hands.

Love is an intense feeling of deep affection. Love is this feeling of deep caring for a person. Paul gives us a list of characteristics of what love is and is not. Love is patient, kind, protects, trusts, hopes, and perseveres. Love is not jealousy, envy, egotistical, deceitful, or quick to anger. Jesus teaches us to love those whom we believe don’t deserve it, or we don’t respect or are our enemies. God gives us this ability to love in ways we may not believe or understand. This love can come in the form of listening to someone that’s hurting. This love can come in the form of going on a drive and listening to music with a friend. This love can come in the form of making a meal for someone. There are tons of love languages, and God’s love includes them all. God’s love for us is hard for us to understand, and the Spirit of love he gave us is the same type of love that we need to share with others.

Self-discipline is the way to control how we feel and overcome our weaknesses. Self-disciple is the path for what we feel is right regardless of the temptations. God gives us this incredible power. It’s so easy for us to let our emotions make our decisions. It’s so easy to drown in our weaknesses because that’s all we think about every day. Yet, God gives us the power to talk to him, give our emotions to him, and feel through them to learn that God feels them too. We can talk through our emotions with God and lean on him to help us control them and trust God. There are those moments where we want to do something, but the fear of stepping out, the fear of discomfort, the fear of taking the risk stops us. Giving those steps to God and remembering to lean on him during each step is a part of that self-discipline.

We see the temptations to stop because we grow more and more uncomfortable with the process, but God helps keep our vision. God helps keep our focus on the destination ahead. God lights our path, helping us not to veer off. God grabs our hand to keep us from drifting away. Psalm 23 talks about this perfectly. God gives us the courage to stay on the path even when the path feels rocky, bumpy, dark, and unsteady.

Fear is being afraid of being hurt. God doesn’t give us that Spirit to focus on our lives. Instead, God wants us to feel the power to do what God calls us to do. God wants us to feel the love that He gives us every single day. God wants us to feel the self-discipline to contain our earthly reactions and instead invest in the heavenly responses. God does not give us a spirit of fear but of power, love, and a sound mind.