The Antidote to Fear

REFERENCE: 2 Timothy 1:7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline. 

Observation: As I am writing this, our country is going through a time of great economic uncertainty. Even though things seem to be getting a little better, there is still talk of the "multi-year job crisis". It is in times like this that we need to know that God is in control. We need to rely on the Spirit that God has planted in our hearts--one that is not fearful and intimidated by what happens around us. 

How do we live in that spirit? By tapping into the power, love and self-discipline that God has planted inside of us. Power--the confidence that God is able to take care of us, no matter what.
Love--the knowledge that a good and all powerful God loves me, personally. We need to be certain that He is committed to our well being. Having a spirit of love means that, having our needs fully met, we are called to meet those needs for others; to love them as we have been loved and are now able to "pass it forward".

A spirit of self-discipline is one that is able, with the Holy Spirit's enabling, to control and eliminate the negative, giving into dispair and discouragement kind of thinking. It is a spirit that is committed to thinking on what is good, what is honorable, whatever is of good report--those things that the Word of God asks us to think on.

We are called to practice these: a confidence in God's power, an deep assurance of His love and the ablitity to discipline our thinking. They are the antidote to a fearful spirit, even in the darkest of times.

PRAYER: Lord, thank You for your peace. It is such a wonderful gift right now. Help me to stay enveloped in it. Please grant me the spirit of self-discipline. I want to keep my heart in mind in line with You.