Day 3: The Spirit of Fear

"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

There is such thing as rational, and irrational fears. For instance, a rational fear would be to jump out of a plane or off of a building without a parachute. An irrational one, would be to jump off a one foot curb without a parachute. Another rational fear is to let your child play in traffic on a busy freeway. An irrational one would be to let your child play in the backyard with a soccer ball. Maybe try this one, a rational fear would be to love someone who has hated you, and has mistreated you in the past. An irrational fear is to be afraid to love at all.

Hey, there is a sound mind in fear. There's a love in fear. There is power in fear. But they must be of the Spirit first. You may say "But the verse says He doesn't give us the spirit of fear." and you are right, but it displays the power of the Spirit, and the best way to cling onto that power is through fear, fear that you cannot do it without God. Fear that God's love, power and truth won't be in it if He does not give you the power. Fear that you will fail without Him. D.L. Moody once said "Our greatest fear should not be of failure, but of succeeding at something that doesn't really matter."

How sad that any one of us would try anything without the proper Spirit. Fear should lead you to think on the one who can overcome it! It should bring you to a place where you have no choice but to lean on God and love others in so doing. Isaiah 41:13 "For I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee." Obviously fear is a common trait among Christians, because the word "fear" is used 400 times in the Bible (365 "fear not"s (1 for each day of the year), and a good portion of it is directed to God's children. God does not want us to fear. However, He expects us to fear, and it shows His love immensely when we fear because He is there to remind us that He is still powerful, and He is still in control.