What Side of the "But" Are You On?

As I was lying in bed one night contemplating one of the challenges that I was facing I began to realize that the true challenge was not the situation itself, but rather the uneasiness that it generated in me. That uneasiness, to put it simply, was fear.

Fear is subtle – at least for me it is. It creeps into the mind ever so slowly, replaying images of past hurts, failures and disappointments, and it attaches itself to a mental trigger – something that sparks recurrent thoughts – memories from the past that are played again and again on automatic rewind. Consequently we respond out of fear, too often missing out on blessings that are just on the other side of it.

2 Timothy 1:7 tells us that fear is a spirit. The word “spirit” means “a mental disposition”, “a vital principle”. So God is saying to you and to me that He is not the one who has given us this spirit – this mindset that ensnares us. But He did give us something, and it is in three parts. See it on the other side of the “but” in this verse. God has given us a spirit of power, of love and of a sound mind.

I like to look up the original meanings of words in the Scripture, so I did a study on this verse, and this is what I found.

• Fear comes from a root word that means faithless, or without faith. So the spirit of fear is a mental disposition that does not exercise faith in God.

• Power comes from a root word meaning “force, abundance, to be able or possible, strength, mighty work”.

• Love in this verse doesn’t just refer to fondness, but it is a deep abiding, “in spite of whatever” commitment.

• A sound mind in this passage refers to self-control, discipline.

So when I broke it down to everyday language I realized what this Scripture really means. – God has not given us a mindset that lacks faith, but He has given us (that means you and I possess it right now) the mental disposition that allows us to think from a standpoint of abundance and strength. Because of that mindset we can do all things in Him. He has also given us the capacity to love with the kind of commitment that can face any challenge. And finally, we possess the discipline and self-control to walk without wavering in that love and power. Now that’s awesome! I don’t know about you, but from this day forward I’m going to make sure I’m on the right side of the “but”.