Many followers of Christ spend much time thinking about God's plans and will for their lives. They spend time praying, reading Scripture, and seeking wise counsel about what God may want for their lives. This question about God's plan can dominate our thinking and become something that we worry about because we want to make sure we are honoring Him with our lives. As we read Scripture, one thing that becomes clear is that God does not want us to live in fear. He wants us to have peace and faith in Him.
The apostle Paul encouraged Timothy, another missionary who was younger than him in the faith, not to live in fear in 2 Timothy 1. He wrote, "For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline" (verse 7). Paul made it abundantly clear that fear does not come from God. A spirit of fear and a spirit of timidity is not from God. This means that when we start to be scared and fear begins to take over; these things are not of God.
If God did not give us a spirit of fear, what kind of spirit did God give us? Paul tells us in the same verse of 2 Timothy 1. Instead of fear, Paul teaches that God gave us a spirit of "power, love, and self-discipline" (verse 7). These three things, power, love, and self-discipline, are what God desires for us instead of fear. Scripture makes it clear that He has given us these things. We can turn to these attributes instead when we begin to experience fear because those qualities are, indeed, of God. No, He does not desire anyone to live in fear, but He certainly does desire for us to live with a spirit of love, a spirit of power, and a spirit of self-discipline.
God does not want you to live your life in fear. Turn to Him today about the fears you have. Ask Him to give you peace, faith, and confidence in Him amidst the storm you are facing. Thank Him that His plan is never for you to live in fear.
This letter is from Paul, chosen by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus. I have been sent out to tell others about the life he has promised through faith in Christ Jesus.
I am writing to Timothy, my dear son.
May God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord give you grace, mercy, and peace.
Encouragement to Be Faithful
Timothy, I thank God for you—the God I serve with a clear conscience, just as my ancestors did. Night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers. I long to see you again, for I remember your tears as we parted. And I will be filled with joy when we are together again.
I remember your genuine faith, for you share the faith that first filled your grandmother Lois and your mother, Eunice. And I know that same faith continues strong in you. This is why I remind you to fan into flames the spiritual gift God gave you when I laid my hands on you. For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.
So never be ashamed to tell others about our Lord. And don’t be ashamed of me, either, even though I’m in prison for him. With the strength God gives you, be ready to suffer with me for the sake of the Good News. For God saved us and called us to live a holy life. He did this, not because we deserved it, but because that was his plan from before the beginning of time—to show us his grace through Christ Jesus. And now he has made all of this plain to us by the appearing of Christ Jesus, our Savior. He broke the power of death and illuminated the way to life and immortality through the Good News. And God chose me to be a preacher, an apostle, and a teacher of this Good News.
That is why I am suffering here in prison. But I am not ashamed of it, for I know the one in whom I trust, and I am sure that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until the day of his return.
Hold on to the pattern of wholesome teaching you learned from me—a pattern shaped by the faith and love that you have in Christ Jesus. Through the power of the Holy Spirit who lives within us, carefully guard the precious truth that has been entrusted to you.
As you know, everyone from the province of Asia has deserted me—even Phygelus and Hermogenes.
May the Lord show special kindness to Onesiphorus and all his family because he often visited and encouraged me. He was never ashamed of me because I was in chains. When he came to Rome, he searched everywhere until he found me. May the Lord show him special kindness on the day of Christ’s return. And you know very well how helpful he was in Ephesus.
