7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. 8 Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord.......2 Timothy 1:7-8The word for 'fear' is translated from the greek word 'deilias' (Strongs #1167). It is used in this form only here in 2 Timothy. There is a relative of this word found in 4 other places: Matthew 8:6, Mark 4:40, Hebrews 12:28, Revelation 21:8. This word for fear has been defined as the fear of losing, dread and timidity that causes one to stand back from God.
The fear of losing is rampant today. People constantly compare one another to each other. Ambitious rivalry is everywhere. People are so afraid of losing that they lie, gossip, and demean each other just to get ahead or get to the top of I don't know what. I wonder how many people really know how serious it is to call good evil and evil good.
The more you have confidence in God and how he really sees us despite our warts and failings, the the greater the capacity to love becomes. We are not in competition with anyone. The competition is in our own minds for our own minds. Sometimes it is such a good thing to say to God, 'Hey God keep me posted on where this is from or where I am going with this in my mind' when we start thinking about something or even when we evaluate what is going on around us. The ultimate goal in any situation is power, love and sound thinking. These three qualities work together for good. Love is center-stage to both power and sound thinking.
We need not be ashamed, politely correct, reticent or scared to share how good God is. The love he has planted in our hearts will facilitate the power needed and the sound thinking to help others even if they are enemies. When David dealt with Saul the word says:
14 And David behaved himself wisely in all his ways; and the Lord was with him. I Samuel 18:14How much God can help each one of us is easy to see when we look in the New Testament . God is so, so good to us!
No comments:
Post a Comment