God does not tell us to do things we are not capable of doing, so she knew she could accomplish what she needed to.
Many in our society today give in to the spirit of fear. "I can't care for my family. Something awful is going to happen to my children. My hubby is going to leave me. We will all get food poisoning. All these chemicals are going to kill us…."
Honestly, there is a great deal to be afraid of in our world. Few Americans are really in danger of ever starving to death, but there are still so many things that can go wrong.
"For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” 2Timothy 1:7
Read that again.
“For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind”.
God didn't give us the spirit of fear.
If God didn't give us the spirit of fear, then who did?
One minister said "If you are making your decisions based on fear then you are letting the devil run your life."
Do you make decisions based on fear? Sometimes it is kind of hard to tell. For example, I don't feed my children a lot of snacks and deserts. Am I afraid that my children will get sick? No, actually I am not afraid at all. I do, however, understand the workings of the human body well enough to know that, like a car, if you don't put the right stuff in, you don't get the best performance out. If I was afraid for my children's health, I would never let anyone feed them junk. Instead, I feed them good, healthy food at home so that others (hubby and grandma) can have the fun of feeding them the junk and my children will still have the building blocks they need to grow and function as they should. I have tried to make my decisions based on knowledge. Fear has no place there. In fact that is the next part of the verse:
"But of power"
I have the power to learn every aspect that I need to of every part of the job that God has called me to and apply that knowledge to those areas I am in charge of. I also know I have the power of God to direct me and to keep my family safe.
“Greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world.” 1John 4:4
My God is bigger than any mere earthly problem. What do I possibly have to be afraid of?
"and of love"
God gives us the spirit of love; the ability to love all humans as much as- or more than- ourselves. This can not come of oneself. It has to come from God.
Naturally, there are some people who just get on my nerves. Something about them makes me not want to have anything to do with them. This is not necessarily a fault of the other person; just part of being human. But God gives me the ability to love everyone as a brother or sister in Him (even the ones who irritate me sometimes). He gives us the Spirit of Love.
"and of a sound mind."
I have discussed a sound mind earlier, but it bears repeating; God does not give us the spirit of insanity. He does not put on us any more than we can handle ourselves. Well, ourselves with the family and church He gives us.
Yes, I know that some mental illness has physical causes.
I once knew a man who had been hit on the head with a bowling ball when he was a child. His mental illness was not a spirit but a physical defect, an injury.
What I am talking about is the "Spirit of Mental Illness" that seems to pervade our society. Everyone is on some sort of medicine to make them calm down or cheer up or go to sleep or wake up. Do you really believe God made us so fragile?
Now, I am human and have my moments of nearly all the conditions that warrant the use of drugs in most people’s minds (I don't recall ever having too much energy, though). But instead of automatically seeking a chemical solution I try to find out what the cause is.
Am I depressed? Is it something I have done or something I am going to do that is causing it? If it is, then I fix the cause, and the depression goes away. Sometimes slowly, but it does leave.
Is it caused by something beyond my control? Then I take it to my King and give it to Him. The hard part is not taking it back.
Sometimes the depression can be the devil trying to steal my joy. The Bible says;
“Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” James 4:7
Sometimes it is hard to resist the devil because it would be so much more fun to wallow in self-pity.
Yes, self-pity can be fun. You get to feel like everyone hates you and is out to get you. This, you see, makes you better than they are.
If you admit that you don't need pity, then you are saying it is your fault (whatever "it" is), at least partly, and you should do something about it. It is so much easier to listen to Satan's telling us that everyone else should fix our problems for us.
The Bible says to resist the devil and he will flee from us. We can also rebuke him in the name of Jesus. This frees us from his oppression, but it does require us to give up our pity pot.
If I have trouble waking up, I take that as my body telling me I need more rest, not that I need a shot (usually in a steaming Styrofoam cup) of some upper.
Now insomnia, I have discovered, has two causes in me. One is when I have something on my mind it goes over and over and drives me nuts because it won't go AWAY! Prayer, and a determined effort to move my mind to something else, usually takes care of it. If it doesn't, I get up and write it down on the computer and that does the trick.
The second cause, however, is chemical. There are certain fluctuations that occur in the hormones in the brain of a woman my age that often cause insomnia. This is like diagnosing the pinging sound in my cars engine. These are the only times I consider taking something (in my case, a glass of milk or a cup of clove and peppermint tea usually does the trick.)
I do not fear nor consider myself a victim. God is in control and He has given me the power to confidently take control of my life. I am not subject to the whims of others.
So what if that man cuts me off in his car? I won't let him make me upset. He CAN'T have that power over me.
So what if my child has a pink rash with green polka dots? I won't fear! I will get my medical books out and see what is causing it (maybe a chronic case of "marker-i-tis"?) and get them to the doctor if necessary, but I WON'T fear. I won't give the disease the satisfaction of controlling me that way.
I will lay my hands to the spindle, and my hands WILL hold the distaff! I will use the blessings of God to His glory!
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