The Spirit Of Power, And Of Love, And Of A Sound Mind
"For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” (2 Timothy 1:7) Fear is a powerful emotion. It changes our physiology, shutting down all non essential functions and diverting all of the body's resources into helping us run away or try to beat up the thing that frightens us. Fear is not rational. A lot of the things that frighten us don't actually make sense if we were to take two seconds to think about it. But God has not given us the Spirit of fear but of a sound mind. We are blessed with the light of Christ. It is given us to discern between good and evil, light and darkness, right and wrong, logical and illogical. When we are filled with the Spirit we do not need to fear because with the Spirit we can see things as they really are, instead of the distorted view that fear forces on us. Fear presumes that we are powerless. Whether we are afraid of a tiger trying to eat us or that our boss is going to fire us or that our friends are going to abandon us, every situation in which we are afraid presumes that we have no say in the outcome, that we have no power over whether or not the tiger eats us or our boss fires us or our friends abandon us. In those moments we believe we are merely objects to be acted upon and the best we can do is react to the situation. But God has not given us the Spirit of fear, but of power. We are agents who can act for ourselves, and when we are filled with the Spirit we are filled with the power to take our destiny into our own hands, to stand firm, to be still and know that God is and that He has all power both in heaven and in earth and that He has shared that power with us that we may come off the conquerors. Fear thinks only of itself. It's all about our own personal survival and there's no room in our brain or our heart to consider anyone but ourselves and how we can put as much distance as quickly as possible between us and the thing that scares us. But God has not given us the Spirit of fear, but of Love. Love expands our soul and makes us think about more that just ourselves. We were put on this Earth to live, not merely survive. Fear can't bear our current circumstances, but love beareth all things. Fear doesn't believe this will end well, but love believeth all things. Fear abandons all hope, but love hopeth all things. Fear can't endure but love endureth all things. Fear will fail us, but love never fails. It is hard to think, to feel, to act when we are afraid but if we pray for the Spirit, we can cast out our fear and replace it with love and with power and with a sound mind.
