“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind*.”II Timothy 1:7 NKJV
*some translations say “sound mind”; others say “discipline”; and yet others say “self-control.” Personally, I prefer the usage of “sound mind,” because in it contains a promise. And for anyone who has struggled with mental issues and even mental illness, this promise from the Lord would lift them up, unlike the other two (as good as those are as well).
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 for us. 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 His 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.
Share your faith: We need the Spirit of God to do the things of God. Ask Him to lead you in every area of life, especially as you share your faith!
Prayer: God, thank You for taking fear’s power and replacing it with gifts from Your Spirit: power, love, and self-control. I know that I will be afraid at times, but—because You are with me—I don’t have to keep living in fear. Please replace my doubts and fears with thoughts about what’s good and true. In Jesus’s name, Amen.
Note after sharing the devotional: recently, I was severely spiritually attacked in both my mind and emotions. Without warning, I found myself sitting in on a very abusive phone conversation, where the person I was nearby was on the receiving end of different forms of verbal abuse including judgments, accusations, and manipulation. Once it was over, I immediately let the person know I was not happy to have had to sit in on that conversation, especially without warning. But as we talked, I came to understand that it was good, although painful, for me to have sat in, because my observations helped the other person confirm what they already suspected: that this conversation was abusive. (The person I was with proceeded to completely block the other person almost immediately after.)
But the consequences of being exposed to that abuse second-hand since the conversation have been hard. Energy drained out of me that has still not been recovered. The fatigue I’ve been experiencing has been to a whole other level. Sure, there’s a level where, as I get older (even only relatively speaking), I’m not as strong as I used to be. But, due to the ongoing health condition (yes, even a year-and-a-half after its beginning!), my ability to recover from anything has been severely diminished. It takes a lot longer to recover from anything, and I’m fighting to not get used to that!
But, nothing is impossible with God. He can still heal, and I’ve been repeatedly asking Him to do just that. So far it’s to no avail. But I remain hopeful, in Jesus’s name, that it can and will still happen, and that the unimaginable won’t happen first before it does. As such, the line “God has given me a spirit of power and of love and of a sound mind” is very encouraging. May it all be so, in Jesus’s name!
