“One-A-Week Challenge” – Week 21

“God has not given us a spirit of fear,
but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”

— 2 Timothy 1:7 NKJV

In 1933, shortly after becoming President of the United States, Franklin Delano Roosevelt boldly declared,

“We have nothing to fear but fear itself!”

He was wrong. As long as there are snakes, we have something else to fear as far as I’m concerned!

Do you know the name Eppie Lederer? I bet you do when I refer to her by her pen name, Ann Landers. The late columnist, who wrote for 47 years, purportedly received over 10,000 letters each week. She said that the single greatest theme of the correspondence dealt with the subject of fear.

Fear comes from the Greek word phobia. The dictionary lists over 700 different phobias. Acrophobia is the fear of high places. Claustrophobia is the fear of tight, closed places. Agoraphobia is the fear of crowds or open places. Ergophobia is the fear of work. My favorite, phobophobia is the fear of fear itself!

Of what are you afraid? Maybe it is the dentist … the doctor … the nurse? I watched a news show one night about a man who was afraid of dust. On this same show was a man who was afraid of clutter (in his house.)

Even followers of Jesus Christ have fears. People fear losing their health, their wealth, their friends, their families, or their fame. Second Timothy has an antidote for fear:

For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. Therefore, do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began,
–2 Tim 1:7-9 NKJV

All our earthly fears are overcome in the believer’s life by the power of God in that our assurance of eternal security is guaranteed. God’s nature is that of generosity and graciousness which enables us to respond in gratitude. He gives us His power, His love, and His mind. Read this very from another translation:

For God has not given us a spirit of cowardice, but of power, and of love, and of wise discretion. 8 Be not therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner; but suffer evil along with the glad tidings, according to the power of God; 9 who has saved us, and has called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to [his] own purpose and grace, which [was] given to us in Christ Jesus before [the] ages of time,

Fear should not characterize the saint of God yielded to the Spirit of God.