“For God has not given us a spirit of fear,(timidity or cowardice) but of power and love and a sound mind.” 2 Tim.1:7 NKJV
If God did not give us fear, who does? I suggest that Satan is the culprit by interjecting thoughts into our minds as a result of the fall. Our limited knowledge about the future allows our thoughts to run wild about the possibility of bad things happening from which fear develops. So, how do we deal with our fears? By meditating in the promises of God enables us to get a clearer vision of what God is like and what He has provided for us.
So What Has He Given Us?
He has given us a spirit of power (dunamis). The Holy Spirit is the power of God revealed for us, to us, and in us. Jesus told His disciples to wait in the city of Jerusalem to be endued with the power of the Spirit before they began to carry out the great commission (Luke 24:49). He knew they could not do His work successfully without His power. Neither can we.
He has given us a spirit of love (agape). His love is the type of love He uses as He loves us and all of humanity. We are to love people with the same love as we minister to them on His behalf. It is the only type that can allow us to look beyond their sinfulness and see their potential in Him when they are redeemed.
He has given us the spirit of discipline or self-control. As a disciple of Jesus, if we allow the new nature (His nature) in us to be in control we discover that we will have the discipline we need to resist the flesh, and Satan’s temptations, to live an overcoming life in all areas. (2 Cor.5:17-19, 2 Pet.1:3-4)
1 John 3:18 says, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.”
1 John 4:7-11 says, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. In this, the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also out to love one another.”