Wielding Faith And Fighting FearSýnishorn

Young Timothy

Young Timothy was frightened. With every footstep he heard outside his door, he thought it might be Roman soldiers coming to arrest him. The persecution of the church under Emperor Nero had reached a fevered pitch, and Timothy started to give out under the weight of it all.

Meanwhile, the apostle Paul, imprisoned in a cold dungeon awaiting his execution, wrote these life-changing words to Timothy: “God has not given us a spirit of fear, but a spirit of power and love and of a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:7, NKJV). 

You might have expected Paul to be more sympathetic, but this was not what the young pastor really needed. Timothy needed to man up, square his shoulders, lift up his head, and know where his hope came from. Like you, I have had days when I have felt like finding a corner somewhere to crawl into and hide. But Scripture tells us that God did not give us a quitting, shrinking, or running-away spirit; He gave us a spirit of inexplicable inner strength, pure vision, and the ability to keep our head in the worst of situations. What God gives you, let no one take away.

Identify a time when God provided you with supernatural “power, love, and sound mind” in the face of a crisis. How did His power change your response to the situation?