THE SPIRIT OF FEAR

"Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting on of my hands.  For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind" (2 Timothy 1:6, 7).                                                                                                                                        

 

Edwin Cole, who has been called “the Father of the Christian Men’s Movement,” has said that the definition of faith and the definition of fear are the same.  He said, “Faith is believing that what you cannot see will come to pass.  Fear is believing that what you cannot see will come to pass.”  This being true, it appears to me that it requires the same amount of effort to believe as it does to fear.  Why, then, does it seem so much easier for us to fear?  The real danger is in the result of our choice to fear, or to believe; and, make no mistake, it is a choice.  The result of fear is that we become paralyzed and unable to act.  The result of faith is that we are motivated to do things that, in some cases, seem impossible to others.

 

When the great warrior of the Philistines, Goliath, stood before the Israelite army and demanded that they send out a man to fight with him, the whole camp of Israel was paralyzed with fear.  Not one man among them, right up to the King himself, had the courage or the faith to walk out on the field of battle and face the enemy.  Finally, a young man by the name of David was sent by his father to deliver food to his brothers who were part of the army.  When David heard the taunts of the giant, his faith was stirred to believe that God could use him to deliver a victory for his people.  This boy, who had been overlooked as a warrior in favor of his taller and comelier brothers, was the very instrument that God chose to glorify His name.  This young man had the one thing that set him apart from every other man on the battlefield that day: he chose to believe God rather than give in to his natural fears.

 

We find that it is often the overlooked, the weak, and the foolish things of this world that God chooses to use.  The strong and the proud cannot be used by God usually because they rely on their own strength and natural abilities instead of trusting in God.  For all of their armament, strategic planning, and military training, King Saul and his army were ineffectual against the enemy that confronted them.  David, however, with just a sling and some stones, destroyed his enemy’s champion, and put the Philistine army to flight.

 

There is an enemy of our soul that seeks to make us ineffectual in the work that God has called us to do.  Fear is one of the most effective tools that our enemy uses to cripple us.  Just as Goliath taunted the children of Israel in David’s time, the enemy of our soul taunts the children of God today.  He makes us feel like the things in our lives are insurmountable, and causes us to feel hopeless and depressed.  God, however, has called us to be like David.  He has given us faith to overcome the enemy and all his lies.  “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen,” (Hebrews 11:1).

 

St. Paul admonished Timothy in 2 Timothy 1:7, “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”  You can be assured that whenever you feel fear rising up in your heart, it has not come from God.  Fear is a tactic of the enemy sent to cripple us so that we will not believe, we will not act, and we will not gain a victory over him.  Isn’t it time that we rise up in indignation and say with David, “who is this [fill in the blank] that should defy the armies of the living God?” (1 Samuel 17:26). 

 

What God HAS given us is a spirit of power, and love, and a sound mind.  It is these things - these gifts – that God gives us so that we might be victorious and that we might have a basis for our faith.  When we feel that we aren’t strong enough to resist temptation or to face the obstacles that life sends our way, God gives us power.  When we are persecuted or misunderstood by those around us, or misused and neglected, and we want to lash out and fight back, God gives us love.  When we are assailed in our minds by thoughts of defeat, doubt, and discouragement, God gives us a sound mind.  All those things that Satan would get us to worry and fret about, God has given us promises to believe in so that we may succeed.  We only need to add faith to the mix, and stir up the gifts that God has given us.  We, then, can exercise the faith of David, rise above our fears, and topple our enemies.