“I remember you in my prayers night and day…For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of POWER and of LOVE and of a SOUND MIND.” (2 Tim. 1:3, 7) When God gives us gifts like this AMY, it’s because of His divine loving care for us. That’s why Paul wrote this, “…I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to KEEP WHAT I HAVE COMMITTED TO HIM until that Day.” (2 Tim. 1:12)
These promises of the Lord are so awesome that Paul says. “You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may PLEASE HIM WHO ENLISTED HIM AS A SOLDIER.” (2 Tim. 2:3-4)
Who of us AMY, can say that we have not felt fear? I know of no one who has been entirely spared. Some, of course, experience fear to a greater degree than do others. Some are able to rise above it quickly, but others are trapped and pulled down by it and even driven to defeat. We suffer from the fear of ridicule, the fear of failure, the fear of loneliness, the fear of ignorance. Some fear the present, some the future. Some carry the burden of sin and would give almost anything to be set free from this burden of fear. Let us recognize that fear comes does not come from God, but rather that this gnawing, destructive element comes from the devil. Fear is the enemy of faith. That’s why our hope of victory over fear comes from this promise, “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of POWER and of LOVE and of a SOUND MIND.” (2 Tim. 1:3, 7)
-Bill Stockham