I AM POWERFUL

“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” 2 Timothy 1:7

I have the power to control my response to Fear.

Fear is inevitable. What does that mean? I want you to think about the questions people ask related to fear. A big one is “what is your greatest fear.” I think we’ve all heard that one. And as you ponder it for yourself and think about the things that make you fearful or anxious I want you to also feel normalized, because like I said, fear is inevitable. I’m sure you’ve heard or read or seen people or things that say they aren’t afraid of anything, or they’re fearless, but that’s not the absence of fear. That is a controlled response to fear. Ah. Isn’t that what we’re usually talking about here? How we respond to the emotions we feel? Yes, and as I’ve been saying, and you’ve hopefully been learning to embrace, that learning to understand what you can control, learning to understand your power, is the true freedom over fear.

Let’s look at the scripture reference for today. I know it’s one that I can recite from memory from my early childhood days: “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” (2 Timothy 1:7) Many may look at this verse as a declaration of no fear, but I want to reframe it for you. Why? Because like I said, fear is inevitable. It is an emotion we all have and all experience. No matter what our life experience has been, there is something (or more likely some things) that trigger fear in us and a fear response, especially if you’re dealing with Anxiety. And I want this biblical affirmation to be accessible to you so let’s reframe and affirm.

Affirmation 1: Your Power is not Fear. Looking at the verse, let’s take that word Spirit and think of it as mindset. God has not given us a mindset of fear. That means we don’t have to let fear be in control. He has given us a mindset of power. What does that mean? A mindset of Power means the ability to make sound and wise choices for yourself and sometimes others. It means you can do anything, including shift which emotion is making the decisions at each junction of your life.

Affirmation 2: God is Love. He has also given us a mindset of Love. Now I’ve given many a think pieces about the complexity of love but the basis of it all for me comes from 1 John 4:8 “God is Love.” The end all be all of what Love is is God. And if God has given me a mindset of Him, if I put my trust in God and the Power He has given me… there’s no reason to allow Fear to take over my actions before I respond to it.

Affirmation 3: I have access to a sound mind. Even in the most fearful of situations, there is a sound mind within you that you only have to tap into to maintain control of your fear response. You can remain calm, you can think through the difficulties, you can call for help, you can survive this… accessing that sound mind is powerful.

So this was a different way to break it down and grasp affirmations today. I like it, and I hope you did too. I hope you can not only see your power, but access it as well and give yourself permission to feel fear, but maintain power over your response to it. I believe you can. I love you and I’m always rooting for you. Keep conquering daily!