For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. 2Timothy 1:7
Fear can have a paralyzing effect on us. The scripture clearly tells us that there is a spirit of fear. When situations happen in life, we will be tempted to open the door to it. If we have opened ourselves to the spirit of fear, then we must close it as soon as we recognize it.
If we were to breakdown the above scripture, we can see the three effects of fear; God’s desire is to undo the effect of fear on us. The power to overcome fear is a promise from God.
Fear causes us to feel powerless
The enemy’s tactic is always to steal, kill, and destroy God’s image. In this case he comes to steal the God-given power to deal with life situations or people around us. We have to fight this battle by scriptures such as,
You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. 1 John 4:4 We can’t forget whose we are.
The scripture in Psalm 23:6 tells us that “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life..”. If we are doing right, we are under His protection. If we’re not doing right, then we need to repent and get right with God because what God directs us to do, He will give us the strength and the grace to do it.
Fear causes us to lose love for individuals
When fear sets in, people go into self-preservation mode and try to protect and defend themselves. As a result we are more concerned with watching out for #1 rather than being concerned about the welfare of the person who has made us fearful. In those situations it is also easy to gossip or paint a negative picture of the person we feel intimidated by.
The Lord desires for us to trust Him even in those times when we are falsely accused, or we’re faced with a tough situation. We need to stay true to Him, and stay humble allowing God to take care of the situation. If directed by the Lord, we can share our side of the story and bring clarity to the situation.
In times of fearfulness, we need to restrain ourselves from name-calling, labeling people, or gossiping. Jesus called us to love our enemies. At times, that may feel hypocritical to us because revenge, justice, or even anger is in our heart, but we have to be willing to trust God by loving the person!! The more we take that risk and do it as He instructs us, the greater victory we will have over fear!!
Fear causes confusion
When fear sets in, it’s almost as if we don’t know which way is up. We have lost our equilibrium. We perceive things with a certain mindset and angle. We start reading too much into everything because we have become insecure. The more confused we get, the more irrational we will be in our behavior, and the more carnal we become. God is not the author of confusion; we need to ask Him to give us clarify. We should give time to ourselves to allow the dust settle on our emotions, so we can see things clearly and make decisions that are appropriate to the situation. If you feel in a rush to say something or do something, or your emotions are at a high level, most likely that’s the time you need to restrain yourself from doing anything that can cause harm to a relationship. In most cases, the Lord gives us the opportunity to take our time and hear His heart before we act. We should not feel pressured into doing something that could have long term effects on us as well as others.
2Timothy 1:7 is a good scripture to memorize and allow God to show you that whenever fear sets in, we are going to be challenged. We may feel powerless, lose our love for individuals, or fall into confusion. However, God’s desire for us is to know that He has not given us a spirit of fear. We must deal with the spirit first. Then we need to feed ourselves on His truth.
When we look at the Bible or even some of the nations around the world, the people of God were/are persecuted and excecuted for their faith. That should give us a right perspective to evaluate our fear in the light of what so many of our brothers and sisters in Christ face around the globe!!
God has given us a spirit of power, love, and sound mind. Those are available to God’s children. We must walk it out and not just talk about it. Sometimes you may not feel powerful, loving, or wise. We still need to declare God’s truth by walking it out, allowing our emotions to eventually catch up with the truth. Being afraid does not give us the license to stop doing what the Lord is asking us do. We need to feel the fear and do it right anyway. We must align our emotions and our thoughts to the truth. The spirit of God must be the leader and our soul will follow suit!!