“ For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, of love, and of a sound mind.”
-2 Timothy 1:7
I have been memorizing this verse with my girl over the past two weeks, and we have loved it so much! I looked up what the word “spirit” meant when my girl asked about it and while there are many ways this word can be interpreted, it seems that this gets at the heart of what it might mean here:
“𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘴𝘱𝘪𝘳𝘪𝘵, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘳 𝘣𝘺 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘤𝘩 𝘢 𝘩𝘶𝘮𝘢𝘯 𝘣𝘦𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭𝘴, 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬𝘴, 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘴, 𝘥𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘴.“
I love that God doesn’t just say He wants us to move about our days & trials unafraid. Instead He gives us a spirit of power, of love, & of a sound mind. The power of the One who raised the dead lives within us. The love of the One who gave everything to defeat death and brokenness so we could draw near to God surrounds us. When you look up the phrase “a sound mind” in Greek it means a “self-controlled” mind. I take such heart with all of this because even when we are afraid, this verse reminds me that I have a choice. I can let fear cripple me, or I can lean into the power and love of Jesus and trust that He will help me have the self-control to look at Him rather than at my circumstances. If I can shift my eyes from the thing that scares the hell out of me to the One who descended down to hell and then walked out of a grave, I begin to have courage. I remember that I am not alone, and I rest in the power and love of Christ.
Lord, thank You that you don’t give us fear, but love and power and self-control. Help me to walk in faith with my eyes fixed on you.
