For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.
II Timothy 1:7
The most important thing to recognize about fear is that it is not of God. Fear is a tactic of the enemy to get us off course, to make us anxious, and to keep us from trusting the Lord. Fear usually begins as an anxious thought. If we allow it to take root in our minds, it becomes embedded in our emotions, where we either feed it or choose to turn it over to God. If we act in fear, we have lost touch with the promises of God, such as, “(He) will supply all our needs…” (Philippians 4:19), “He will never forsake us” (Deuteronomy 31:6), and “He will guard us in all our ways.” (Psalm 91:11) We must be determined to recognize that fear is not of God. We need to rely on the Holy Spirit to keep fear from controlling our thoughts, our emotions, and our actions. Paul writes to Timothy, thanking him for his sincere faith. He reminds Timothy to use his gifts and to remember that God did not give him a spirit of fear but of love and self-discipline. The church was under persecution, and Paul was writing to persevere.
What about you? Has fear taken hold of you? Ask the Holy Spirit to show you what fearful thoughts you have been entertaining and begin to cast them down. In his second letter to the Corinthian church, Paul tells us to take our thoughts captive in obedience to Christ: We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets up against the knowledge of God, and we take every thought captive to make it obedient to Christ. (2 Corinthians 10:5) What thoughts have taken you captive? Allow the Lord to fill you with His truth. The truth of His Word will drive out all of your fears.
Heavenly Father,
I take captive every fearful thought that I have concerning (fill in the blank). Your Word tells me that You have not given me this spirit of fear, and I claim Your power instead.
In Jesus’ name, Amen
