The Power to defeat fear and activate faith

It’s Easter month again! What a joy to celebrate the selfless love of a wonderful Saviour. The spotless lamb who gave His all for us to live a life of freedom. Freedom from sickness, bondage and pain. Freedom from poverty and loss and freedom from all fear! Fear has the opportunity to creep into our hearts and minds in just about any circumstance to situation but its source is always the same. Fear comes from the pit of hell with the sole purpose to paralyze our emotions, render our reasoning inactive, immobilize our faith and just plain destroy us.

This is pretty much what Timothy was battling with when Paul was writing him in 2 Timothy 1:7. When Paul wrote to Timothy, it was a very difficult time for the early church. The ruler over the region in that day was the mad man Nero. Now Nero was truly insane and a large part of his insanity resulted in the most severe, cruel and gruesome persecution of the believers, wherever his power reached. He would have every believer hunted down, caught, hideously tortured and killed. He showed no mercy for anyone. At this time, Timothy was a pastor of the church of Ephesus, a town that was completely under Nero’s evil control. Timothy knew that Nero’s secret police would take special pleasure in killing him in some barbaric way if they ever got their hands on him.

Now Timothy was having to deal with a spirit of fear, threatening to discourage him to the point of giving up his calling and turning away from one of the greatest revivals the church of Ephesus would experience. Paul told Timothy, “For God has not given us the spirit of fear; but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”

The phrase (sound mind) comes from a Greek word that suggests a mind that is delivered, rescued, revived, salvaged and protected and is now safe and secure.

This means that even when your mind is tempted to succumb to fear, like Timothy, you can allow God’s Word, by the Holy Spirit, to work in you to deliver, rescue, revive and savage your mind. This means your rationale; logic and emotions can be shielded from the horrible, ridiculous, fearful thoughts that have tried to grip your mind when you face challenging circumstances.

It works like this: The more time we spend meditating on the word of God, the more truth we invest into our minds and spirits. So when fear knocks at our door and tries to take control, the Holy Spirit reminds us of the truth that we have stored inside and that truth overrides the fearful thoughts. God’s word rescues us; it protects our minds as it replaces the thoughts of fear and brings us peace and hope. The word of God causes our minds to become safe and secure in the midst of trouble as we focus on His truth instead of the fearful thoughts. Pretty soon the word of God is speaking louder than fear filled thoughts and faith comes! Faith is that powerful, life giving force that makes the impossible and changes every unfavorable circumstance to line up with the promises of God.

No matter what we are faced with today, let’s decide to take Paul’s words to Timothy to heart. God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of love, power and a sound mind. A mind rescued, revived and protected from the talons of fear and is safe and secure, focused on the truth of His word. Just remember that it’s the word of God inside of you that has the power to protect and work for you. So don’t waste a moment on the truth of God’s word and build up the greatest investment of your life – the power to defeat fear and activate faith!

May the LORD bless Nigeria, American and Israel and take care of us; May the LORD make His face shine upon us, And be gracious to us; May the Lord lift up His countenance upon us, And give us peace, In Jesus Christ Name, we pray! Amen!

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