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For 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
Brief note before sharing the devotional: certain translations say a “sound mind” (like the above); others say “discipline” or “self-control” (like the below). Take your pick which one you believe God is highlighting to you more:
For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline. 2 Timothy 1:7, New American Standard Bible
for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control. 2 Timothy 1:7, English Standard Version
Power, Love, and Discipline
One of the miracles of salvation is that when we have faith in Christ, God not only saves us—He also gives us the power to live according to His will. Your life in Christ is one that is empowered by the Holy Spirit living within you.
This is a great gift, but a big shift. It often takes time to change how we think and act. We may have bad habits that take hard work to correct, or patterns of thought that are challenging to break.
Thankfully, God promises to be with us and to empower us to make these changes in our life. When Paul is writing to his mentee Timothy, he encourages him to continue to develop the gift that God has given to him. While we are saved in an instant, it takes a lifetime to develop and work out what God is doing inside of us.
Paul reminds Timothy that God’s Spirit does not give us fear or cowardice. Those things are tools of the devil who is trying to keep us from God. But the Spirit of God empowers us with confidence in Him. He gives us the power to live out the purposes of God in our life. This power is one that we need to continually remember as we face challenges.
The Spirit of God also empowers us to love others. It can be difficult to love people, especially those who may have hurt us. But God promises to give us His power and love so that we can be a light to everyone around us.
God’s Spirit also empowers us with self-discipline. We won’t experience spiritual change and growth if we don’t train and practice—but that takes time, dedication, and endurance. We need to be consistent in doing the things that God asks us to do, including reading God’s Word and talking to Him. Thankfully, when we belong to God, He helps us. He gives us the strength, stamina, and soundness of mind to build habits that help us become more like Him.
So take some time today to talk with God. Ask Him to empower you by His Spirit toward confidence, love, and self-discipline. Consider how God is leading you to change the way you live. As you do that, remember that God doesn’t give us fear. He fills us with love because He wants us to experience a confident relationship with Him.
Note after sharing the devotional: Dovetailing off my last devotional post, this is part of what faith in action looks like in terms of applying the verses, as follows:
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Philippians 4:13, NKJV
But Jesus looked at them and said to them, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” Matthew 19:26, NKJV
With the below verse answering the question of “how”:
For 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
Faith is believing that God indeed didn’t give us a spirit of fear, and believing that He instead gave us a spirit of power, a spirit of love, and a spirit of a sound mind.
Just now - as I was writing the words, “a spirit of love,” I believe I felt the Lord download to me the interpretation of it. It has to do with loving others with God’s love, and not with our own fleshly love. Sure, with many people it is indeed easy to love from our flesh, because 1.) we get along, 2.) we enjoy common interests together, 3.) maybe there’s even a present (or historical) aspect of a relationship where we shared a memorable moment (a road trip, a concert, or even a situation where we both narrowly escaped something bad and were together in it), or even 4.) when there’s a romantic interest. (I realize this list isn’t exhaustive, but I’m hoping that you, the reader, get the idea of what I’m trying to say.) The point is, because God is love and has infinite love, in the same way that He is infinite strength and we can rely on that, we can do the same with love. Additionally, because love is a choice and not a feeling, oftentimes the way love proves itself is through actions.
In my therapy years, I was privileged to also be part of a 12-step recovery group as a component to my healing.
[Before I continue, I recognize that some of you may not think too highly of these types of groups. My simple stance is that while I don’t believe this should replace church (and many such groups and individuals have done exactly that!), I believe it can be a valuable and powerful tool, if used well. I have seen, time and time again, that simply lecturing a person on the truth does not change them. To wit, the below Bible verse:
Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 1 Corinthians 13:1-2, NKJV
It’s worth noting that the author of the above passage, Apostle Paul, is widely considered to be the second-greatest champion of the Christian faith (after Jesus, of course). Much of our New Testament formation is based on Paul’s letters, in which he drove home the points about the importance of faith and truth, and about not letting the flesh win over the battle with the Spirit of God in all true believers. The true notion of “sin is sin” I believe is most prominently spelled out in Paul’s letters, although it is also scattered across all Scripture. The reason I hone in on this is because even Paul recognized that doing all the things he pushed for in all his letters (faith, truth, righteousness, holiness, etc) amounts to absolutely nothing if you don’t also have the love of God in your hearts. I am a firm believer that therapy and 12-step recovery can work well if you also have the component of the true Christian faith, in the very same exact way that the US Constitution works if its nation’s people are of the same true faith. If you don’t have Christ, the US Constitution doesn’t work. If you don’t have Christ, then therapy and 12-step recovery don’t work, either. But if you do have Christ, then a great many tools and resources have great potential to work well. As such, I am firmly pro-therapy and pro-recovery, because I saw how God used it to bring me out of darkness into His marvelous light on a great many practical levels.]
The 12-step recovery was work, in and of itself. It was hard work, because it required an honest look at myself and my sin. While therapy group focused more on healing from bad memories and relearning how to do relationships with people, 12-step recovery tested my strength in terms of my habits and patterns in the here and now. What I wish to do now is to share a modified version of the 12 steps, because I believe its framework mirrors precisely the salvation and sanctification processes (italics are the original text, my adjustments are in straight font):
1. We admitted we were powerless over our sin — that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves (that is, the God of the Bible) could restore us to sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of the God of the Bible, and of Jesus Christ His Son.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. Admitted to the God of the Bible, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. Were entirely ready to have the God of the Bible remove all these defects of character.
7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with the God of the Bible as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
12. Having been saved by faith through Jesus Christ’s blood sacrifice on the cross as the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and having worked through these Steps as directed by Him, we tried to carry this message to others, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
[I took the above from the AA resource, but each type of recovery group has their own version of the 12 steps to fit their program (for example, “alcohol” for AA, “overeating” for OA, “narcotics” for NA, etc).]
The point is, God giving us a spirit of discipline, of self-control, and of a sound mind (in addition to power and love), can take different practical forms, even when the Biblical principle doesn’t change. In this day and age, there are a growing number of people who do not have basic life skills, and this includes how to manage their emotions, impulses, reactions, and compulsions, etc. We used to be able to rely on “common sense” to get us through as a society and as a world. But, as the last five years have shown, “common sense” isn’t common anymore. It is now good sense that needs to be re-taught and re-learned, because I believe we’ve reached beyond a critical mass of individuals where this is required for the long-term stability of society. The good news is, God is able. He is more than able. But we need to submit to His will for our lives and invite Him into our hearts. We need to receive Him (that is, Jesus Christ) as our King and Savior, and to let Him heal us and develop our character so that it can be like His as much as possible.
But Jesus looked at them and said to them, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” Matthew 19:26, NKJV
For with God nothing will be impossible.” Luke 1:37, NKJV
For 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
Prayer: God, thank You for taking fear's power and replacing it with love. I know there will be times when I feel afraid, but Your Spirit will help me to not live in fear. Please replace my doubts and fears with thoughts about what is good, godly, and true. In Jesus's name, Amen.