As a child, memorizing scripture was a part of my upbringing. Even if you didn’t go to church or believe the stuff that church was saying, memorizing small verses was simply a part of the generation I was raised in.
One verse I memorized when in high school would become a verse I would never forget.
2 Timothy 1:7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.
The last part of it is very inspiring to me. I LOVE to see myself as someone of POWER (“You can DO IT”), LOVE – #lovewins, and Self-Discipline – “set your course and don’t stop until you get there”.
I could give a motivational talk on those 3 things and tour the country winning over crowd after crowd with a message of POWER, LOVE, and SELF-DISCIPLINE. Everyone I know wants these things and wants them to be TRUE of their lives.
However, most of us don’t function with these three things active in our daily lives because we always seem to be fighting an underlying “spirit” of fear.
I’ve clearly experienced circumstantial fear – when something is happening that I don’t want to happen and cause me to fear what outcome awaits. I get that.
I’ve also had the occasional lapse of irrational fear – like spiders. I’m a big guy (about 320 lbs of relaxed, dormant muscle) The largest spider I’ve ever seen is about the size of a small rodent – but he average I witness in daily life is the size of a fly. YET, when I see them – I flinch. I draw back, jump out of my chair, and run. Seriously… could I be more irrational?
But the “spirit” of fear is something different. It’s the underlying current that causes us to live and make daily decisions in a state of fear.
“Let’s try something new today?” The spirit of fear prompts us “no, it’s probably not a good idea.”
“It’s been a while, I should call them today?” The spirit of fear says “they’re probably upset wth you about something, or they would have reached out to you by now.“
“Let’s go for it! Carpe Diem!!!” The spirit of fear rises up “you’ll fail, don’t try it. It will be horrible, worse than you can imagine. Try something tomorrow.”
Seth Godin calls this “spirit” of fear – the LIZARD BRIAN. Bent on preserving the status quo in our lives. A self protecting drive that strives to remove the TENSION of the UNKNOWN from our lives. It’s like a constant voice that says “no, don’t try it, you’ll fail, it’s to much, you don’t have what it takes, maybe you should let someone else.” No matter what you call it… it’s powerful and wins the day most of the time.
It’s TIME TO TRADE UP!
We’ve got the option at all times. According to 2 Timothy 1:7 we can let the spirit of fear run our lives, OR we can TRADE UP for the Spirit of POWER, LOVE, and SELF-DISCIPLINE. The choice is now ours!
The majority of the negative tension we feel in our lives is caused by this spirt of fear. It might be our NATURAL self, but it’s not necessary to live from there. We’ve been given the option to TRADE UP for a better Spirit. So why not do it!
Where has the spirit of fear kept you from trying today?
What is it saying to you RIGHT NOW as you read this blog?
If we’ve been given POWER, LOVE, and SELF-DISCIPLINE, then why not tell the “spirit of fear” to take a hike. It’s time to TRADE UP!
Love this post. It is so true. We always fear stepping out of our comfort zone. But the more we step out of our comfort zone the larger our comfort zone becomes.