Hey Advent Family,
“So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand”. – Isaiah 41:10
“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of self-control.” – 2 Timothy 1:7
When I was in middle school, a group of friends coerced me into going through a haunted house at a local stadium. To this day, I regret that decision! Midway through, I was chased by a man with a chainsaw, who eventually caught me, and proceeded to rip off my shoe and throw it as far as he could. Terrified, and angry at the assault, lost shoe, and now having a badly twisted ankle, I hit the guy as hard as I could, nearly breaking his nose. While I’m not very proud of that moment, it remains the last time that I have ever entered a haunted house.
Sometimes we do things out of fear that we wouldn’t normally do. Leading with fear has a way of clouding our judgement where we think only about surviving the season we are in, or at the very least, easing the anxiety of the moment. We can lash out in anger, make poor decisions, and do things that we come to regret later. Ultimately, what fear really does is lead us away from God. When we are motivated by fear, we tend to trust in what we can do and lean on God only when we are out of options. Fear shifts our trust from God, to ourselves, and in that state of panic and clouded judgement, we can’t see where God is at work in our lives clearly.
Timothy reminds us that we have not been given a Spirit of fear. In other words, while fear might be our natural state without God, with God, something about our nature changes. The Spirit – which is not our own, but guides us – is not of fear, but trust. It is a Spirit rooted in power, love, and self-control.
These three things, Power, Love, and Self-control, are incredibly important for us to remember as we face fearful situations. It is not by our power that we will get through the seasons that we are facing, but God’s. His Power will sustain us, and nothing that we can do on our own. We can’t work our way out of what God is working His way in. We rarely have the strength to get through the struggles in life, but God always does. Trust first in Him and He will see you through.
A Spirit of Love is God’s call for us to change our perspective on the situation. When you pray for your enemies, compassion replaces hate. Understanding comes. This doesn’t mean that you will change the person, but it does mean that your hope for them can change. They can’t make you quite as miserable when compassion leads you rather than fear. When we invite God to work in those places of our lives that we can’t control, and try and see things through a different perspective, we change in the process.
Finally, a Spirit of Self-Control is the urging that God gives us to not lash out in anger, in fear, or in hurt. We should try our best to not get overwhelmed in tough times, because satan loves to take the opportunity to make matters worse. If we can calm our fears, check our thoughts and actions, and move with confidence in God’s presence, then the outcome will always be better. An added benefit of self-control is that it tends to bring us peace. If we are able to control our fears, then we won’t give satan the chance to let them snowball in our lives.
Fear is always a thief that robs us of peace. If you are facing a season of fear, just remember the promise God made through Isaiah: Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
Pastor Patrick