Potty Prayers

For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. — 2 Timothy 1:7 (KJV)

Fear has been on my mind a great deal lately. I’m sure you have something (if not quite a few things) you can fill in the blank with. I’ve been familiar with this verse for a long time. I know fear is not of the Lord, and I often feel guilty when I have a fear of something. Is my faith not strong enough? Am I not walking close enough to God? What’s wrong with me that I’m fearing when I shouldn’t be?

Whenever I want to study some scripture, I go to a set of commentaries we have written by J. Vernon McGee. I love the way he puts things in a way I can understand and relate to. I love what he’s written about this verse. He explains that fear is a natural thing. He uses the example of a lion. If you saw a lion loose, fear would cause you to find a really good hiding place. This would be a good thing, because who would want to be eaten by a lion?

However, Paul is speaking not of a good kind of fear, but of cowardice. Paul is saying, “God hath not given us the spirit of cowardice; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”

“A sound mind” means discipline. In other words, God does not intend that defeat should be the norm of Christian living. We should be disciplined Christians rather than slaves to our emotions. We are all moved by our emotions. That is why people will send money to organizations that advertise with the picture of a poor, hungry, little orphan. But Christians are not to be motivated by their emotions. Our emotions are not to master us. We are to be disciplined.

How does this apply to the question of fear? Is it wrong for me to have a fear of flying? No. It would be wrong for me to stay at home. You see, If I am a disciplined Christian, I am going to grit my teeth, go down and get that ticket, and take that trip because God has called me to an itinerant teaching ministry. Overcoming emotions means not letting your emotions stop you from doing something you should be doing. When you have a fear of flying, you discipline yourself to fly anyway. But you still live with your emotions. — J. Vernon McGee from “Thru the Bible”

He said all that way better than I could! It’s really made me stop and think. What fears have I let control my life? What is God calling me to do that I’m afraid of? What am I afraid will happen? I’ll be looking specifically at some fears of mine this week. If you have any that you’d like to share, let me know. I’ll write about them as well.

Prayer: Lord, please help me to remember not to let my emotions rule my decisions and actions. I want You to control me and give me a sound mind. You know how badly I need a sound mind! Help me to distinguish between the good fear and the areas I need to be self-disciplined in. Thank you Lord that Your Word is so applicable to my life today — thousands of years later.