"For God did not give us a spirit of timidity (of cowardice, of craven and cringing and fawning fear), but [He has given us a spirit] of power and of love and of calm and well-balanced mind and discipline and self-control."" 2 Tim 1:7 (AMP)
It is so easy to be scared in this world today. But, God has told us that we are not supposed to be afraid. We are powerful beings because we have been created in God's image. He has ot left us to fight the battles here on Earth without help.
At a women's conference three weeks before I was to get married, a woman gave me this verse to hold on to in my heart. She said that she could sense a spirit of fear in my life, but that I was made for so much more than that. I didn't need to be afraid. Now, fast forward 3 years. My mind raced with thoughts of destruction, loss, failure, and the unraveling of this life I had put together. I was laying in the emergency room with severe pain in my leg and visions of "what if's"in my head. I had been struggling with a hurting leg all week. I had rested the day before and it seemed fine. Now that I was moving on it again, it was worse. I was scared and i knew that if I didn't get it taken care of that day then I would not be able to go on my trip the following morning. I was scheduled to load a bus with 13 middle school students to State FFA convention. I was the advisor and I had to be there. If the trouble with my leg was too severe I would have to find someone to take my place for the week, and I didn't know that I trusted anyone else. Who could do what I did for those kids? Who could accomplish everything I did for them? Those thoughts of responsibility and possible failure planted a seed of doubt in my mind, and worse yet, my heart. Then, the "what if..." statements began to rush through my brain.
What if I actually have a blood clot in my leg?
What if I can't take my medicines anymore?
What if I can't go on this trip?
What if I lose my job because I don't go on this trip?
And on and on it went. Can you see how dizzying fear can make us feel? I really like the way the Amplified Bible put it. "Timidity (cowardice, craven and cringing and fawning fear)" Fawning implies exaggeration. That's exactly what I was doing. I was continuing to exaggerate the fear. But, God does not make us these fearful ineffective people. He made us to have power. You are powerful, girl!!! The enemy wants you to forget that. He wants us to be stuck in our muck. Praise God that there was nothing wrong with my leg other than a pulled ligament, but even if there had been something worse, God gives me the power to overcome even the most impossible of situations.
As I have said again and again, we are God's daughters. Therefore, we have the power to say to the Devil, and all his minions, "I belong to God and you should fear me!" We can recognize when we are imagining lies and use the sweet name of Jesus to defeat them. We don't have to stand in the shadow of fear anymore; God gave us the power to fight fear through His love.
1John 4:18 says that perfect love drives out fear. If we let the perfect love of God fill up our hearts, there is no room for fear. There is a fear in the social media world that people will see us for who we really are...broken. So we take our best selfie and write our best post. But, still we think that we are "less than" and we don't want the rest of the world to know that. We fear that we don't measure up, but God has already said that we do. And, what's more, He has given us the power to change things...we just have to stop being scared.
So the questions presents itself, how do I get that power? It's not like I can just go to the store and pick up a God power battery. Or can we?
I would say that yest we can. It's called the Bible. Our power comes from knowing who God is and submitting to His will in our lives. In order to know Him and His will, we have to read His word. I recently re-read the story of Joshua and Rahab looking for God's power in their lives. Check out Joshua chapters 2 through 6 for the whole story. The people in this story submit to God's will and He gives them such power to change the world around them. Joshua submits to God's will, and he gets to lead the Israelites into the promised land. The spies he sent to check out the area submitted to Joshua's leadership that was to him by God. That allowed them to be spared by Rahab from the Jericho soldiers. Rahab submits to a God that she doesn't really even know yet to save the spies, and in turn her and her family's lives are spared.
When we submit to God's will, we can have the endless power that comes from Him. I don't know about you, but I'm tired of being afraid that I can't do it all. I'm tired of trying to do it all on my own, and failing. I'm ready to submit to God's will, to find His power in my life.
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