The challenges I face are too much.
“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” 2 Cor 12:9
I’m too scared.
“I have not been given a spirit of fear, but of power, love and a sound mind.” 2 Tim 1:7.
I’m rubbish. I’m done. I’m far too ashamed.
“So now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Romans 8:1
I’ve got no-where to turn.
‘”I myself will tend my sheep and give them a place to lie down in peace,” says the Sovereign Lord’. Ezekiel 34:15
I’m stuck in old ways of thinking
“We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” 2 Cor 10:5
My situation is all wrong
“I have learned to be content in every circumstance” Phil 4:11
I can’t
“His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness.” 2 Peter 1:3
10 Comments
Hi Emma!
Thanks for this post – thought I’d provide a little clarification though, (no fault of yours, just clarity because I’ve encountered this out of context wayyyy too many times across various Christian circles … #argh lol)
2 Tim 1:7 specifically refers, in context, to not being ashamed of the gospel as Paul is writing to ask Timothy to guard the gospel, which he names as the “good deposit”. So yes, it does tell us to not be afraid, but I would think it to be in relation to gospel proclamation/standing firm in Christian identity/the likes of those things rather than common every day things.
“I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well. *For this reason* I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control. *Therefore* (do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God), who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, … By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you.” – 2 Timothy 1:5-10, 14, emphases mine.
Love the 2 Peter bit though! (Perhaps because that was the book we studied recently at the young adults retreat that I told you about, several weeks ago. Haha) xx
Thanks Dee, yes you’re right all of these verses have a context and can be misinterpreted. But I take encouragement from the fact that we have the same Spirit as Timothy even if our circumstances might be very different.
Emma
I’m glad I read ths tonight. I am sitting at my desk in the hospital. It’s my seventeenth week here. I feel desperate.
I feel like I can’t do it. I can’t raise my game by having another snack added tomorrow.
I can’t beat the anorexia.
I can’t cope with the anxiety. The angst. The pain.
But your post reminds me.
I don’t FEEL it. But I know it is truth.
Sometimes, often, that has to suffice.
FF
x
Praying for you FF. xxxx
Hey Emma & I want to also address this to Dee but I don’t know if she’ll see it.
I read this blog post and I was really encouraged. I struggle with anxiety and it permeates my mind with faulty thinking about all areas of life, including my faith. I really appreciated reading Emma’s truths to counter what feels like a very twisted and broken logic I have in my mind that always draws the worst case scenarios and negativity to the forefront.
I felt really afraid and worried when I read your comment Dee. It’s a verse I hold very dear, I cling to the hope that I have been given sound mind, and that the confused and ‘ill mind’ that I have will one day be healed. I sometimes have panic attacks that the fear I feel that exhausts me and haunts me might never end and I cling to the hope that my ‘spirit of fear’ is not of God but will also one day be taken away.
I feel confused that you have said this is not for us, and that it’s been mis-interpreted. I took quite a dip worrying about it. Worrying it was not a truth I can stand on and worrying that it’s a verse I can’t hold onto.
I think I still feel confused about it really, and I guess I just wanted to have some ‘clarity’ – can I take this verse to believe Jesus does not want us to have a spirit of fear, that we were designed to operate from Him in love, power and sound mind? 😢 Or ‘in context’ do I have to let go of it as not for me?
Thanks
hello there, just thought to respond a bit since your comment was partly addressed to me.
1. I’m not trained in bible college or theology, these observations are just what I picked up from bible study/sermon in church (Emma might know better, being er, married to Glen. Haha.)
2. I don’t deny that it’s true that God might have given us His Spirit to help with scary every day fears. What I was trying to say was that in the context of the letter to Timothy, it was meant in a certain way, so I didn’t think was the best context to use for bringing across this point.
2b. That being said, you are absolutely right that it still holds true – just that it might be illustrated more accurately elsewhere in the Bible, just not best explained with 2 Timothy 1.
3. Yes, I do think Emma’s reference of Romans 8 to back this point up seems like a more fitting context – I think that it is true that we are enabled not to be afraid, just that in 2 Tim 1 it is specific to not being afraid of proclaiming the gospel. In other aspects of not being afraid, they’re explained in other parts of the Bible in other contexts too. :-)
Apologies for startling you/if I sounded heretic! Oops. Work-in-progress too 😳
Thank you Emma,
Having read A New Day recently and your blog for a while, I have borrowed some of your helpful thoughts and approaches to anxiety in my latest post .
I thought it only polite to tell you, since a blog makes you easy to contact, and it’s a slightly shameless plug for the disorganised sunday school blog too.
Please plug and borrow away Hannah – glad it was helpful!
For everyone else: check out Hannah’s fab blog at disorganisedsundayschool.wordpress.com
Hi Bee,
I think Dee is right to say that we should read verses in context and certainly these words will mean different things to me than to Timothy. But if the Spirit I’ve received is the same as the Spirit Timothy’s received (and it is) I can rest assured that I have a Spirit “not of fear”. And if you want confirmation of this, read Romans 8:14-16 :)
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