Monday, July 27, 2009

Hello readers. In my life I have developed a habit of saying 'no' to worldly choices, but just as often I was saying 'no' to the work of the Lord as well. The result was an empty, dissatisfied existence. So I write this message only because I saw it, found myself able to articulate it, and thanks to technology of this age, can to display it for you.

2 Tim 1:7 “For God gave us a spirit not of fear, but of power and love and self control.”

Think of what this means fellow Christian, God gave us a spirit of power, love, and self control.
The spirit of power – to do and speak; the power to move our own self and to move others.
The spirit of Love – to care and sacrifice in imitation of Christ.
The spirit of Self Control – to refuse the body what would hurt it or harm the soul; to refuse the mind the pleasure of evil thoughts and bad advice. And also Self Control to choose the narrow way when the broad has every indication of superiority. It would be wrong to anthropomorphize these divinely gifted spirits as three 'angels' given to us, invisibly floating around working these virtues into our lives. We have no trustworthy explanation of how spirits, and the empowering of God, operates. But it does happen, though the method is beyond our knowing. An unattainable question of 'How?' distracts from the vital point of this verse, our living, loving God has given us what we need so that we can successfully do what is good and right. Our focus should be on what actions we have before us today that require power, love, and self control. This is following God. These are the 'all things' I can do through Christ who strengthens me.
Lord, help us, your servants, to remember and use these great gifts you have given, and to give you praise for the good that results.

1 comment:

Maeve Draal said...

Amen! Will link to this post from mine - I hope you don't mind!