Verse: 2 Timothy 1:7
…for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.
Devotion
I think it’s natural to experience feelings of fear, or a lack of bravery at times. Life is truly like the ocean; sometimes we are sailing in smooth waters, and other times we are navigating through a storm with 20 foot waves and 60 mph winds. However as followers of Jesus, we aren’t alone when navigating these waters. We have the Holy Spirit to lean on in times of need. And we absolutely should lean on him because if we could handle everything on our own, then we wouldn’t need the presence of God in our lives to begin with.
With the Holy Spirit, we are equipped to handle and weather the storms we encounter. Paul tells us specifically in verse 7 that we were not given a spirit of fear, but of power, love and self-control. Self-control specifically is a big part of a Christian’s life. We have to exercise self-control in all aspects of our lives. We need to exercise self-control in managing our time— we shouldn’t over book our schedule so much that we are compromising our time devoted to our spiritual disciplines. We need to exercise self-control to be in charge of our emotions so that we are not lashing out in anger. We need to exercise self-control to ensure that we are not putting ourselves in situations where we know we have sinful struggles. For example: if we know we have a difficult time in the presence of alcohol, we definitely shouldn’t be buying any to “sit in the house for when people come over”. We need to recognize what our sinful triggers are, and intentionally remove them from our lives so we are not constantly flirting with the line of sin.
Beyond that, I know at times we can get bogged down with our situation; especially when we keep reminding ourselves of all of these “rules”. As followers of Christ we are set free from the chains of sin. Those shackles have no hold on us. We are not bound to whatever life we previously lived. We aren’t stuck on the fence line looking at what’s on the other side. We are free to roam the pasture that is freedom in Christ, all we have to do is turn around and recognize all of the freedom that we have. For Christians, this perspective change can be achieved through maintaining spiritual disciplines, and exercising self control throughout our lives.
I challenge you to examine your life. What areas could you tighten the reigns in? I challenge you to identify an area, and take practical steps to address that. And then stay consistent with what you decide to change, and stick with it daily.
Prayer:
Dear Heavenly Father,
Thank you for all that you are doing in our lives. Lord please give us the strength to overcome whatever storms we may be battling. Help us to exercise self-control in all aspects of our lives so that we can truly recognize all of the freedom we have in you. Walk with us as we work on this, and help us to be consistent in what we choose to address. In your Heavenly name I pray, Amen.
Author: Justin Artymenko
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