I love this verse where the apostle Paul mentors his protege Timothy about courage. "For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline" (2 Timothy 1:7).
Paul tells Timothy that whenever he looks inside himself and sees timidity, that timidity didn’t come from God. Rather, what originates from God is power, love, and self-discipline.
God gives you the enabling by the Word and the Spirit that you may have power – that you may have strength of character and be bold in exercising the authority Christ delegated to you.
God gives you the enabling by the Word and the Spirit that you may have love – that you may love everyone with God’s kind of love and be able to love even the unlovely.
God gives you the enabling by the Word and the Spirit that you may have self-discipline – that you may exercise mastery in a situation because you have first mastered yourself. You know when to say yes and when to say no, and you rise to the challenge and do it or choose not to do it.
When you look inside at your response to a difficult situation and see timidity, that’s when you claim God’s power and love, and that’s when you exercise self-discipline.
The courageous may not live forever in this life, but the timid don’t live at all! Take courage and hang onto God!
No comments:
Post a Comment