Spirit of Power

Children will believe most anything told them.  As children, the man across the street instilled a fear of the dark and unknown.  He told my brother and me, “The boogie man is out there to get you!”  From that day on, neither one of us wanted to use the second bathroom that was upstairs.  It seemed desolate and dangerous; the habitation of evil.  A spirit of fear seized us and we would never be found up stairs alone, especially after dark!

Shortly thereafter, we went on vacation to the Smokey Mountains.  Both Mom and Dad loved early American History.  We always had to stop at every historical point of interest, in particular, anything pertaining to Lincoln.  One point of interest in Kentucky; was an old log cabin believed to be the homestead of the Lincoln family.  It was a couple hundred feet from the road and small parking lot; surrounded by many acres of open field.  We were the only car parked there.  Believing the cabin to be empty, we ran ahead of our parents, racing to see who would be first, as kids do.  Once inside, hardly a minute had passed when we heard footsteps from the second floor and a creaking of a door.  We looked at each other and ran out of there as fast as we could.  White as ghosts by the time we met Mom and Dad coming up to the house, a woman followed us out of the cabin, saying, “I’m sorry, did I scare you?”  She was a school teacher who had walked through the woods from another parking area we didn’t see.  We all laughed; but for those few moments, we had been terrorized by fear.

How often do we allow a spirit of fear to overtake us?  Living in a dangerous world, fear can save us from going where we shouldn’t and keep us from doing that which we shouldn’t.  But fear itself is not of God.  If we have a fearful respect for God and his Word; we need not fear evil.  We have power over evil and the Devil. 

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

“Submit yourselves therefore to God.  Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7).

“There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it” (1 Corinthians 10:13).

“The name of the LORD is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe” (Proverbs 18:10).

The word “fear,” creates an acronym that reads, “False Evidence Appearing Real.”  So often, our fears are unfounded and have no substance to them.  Let us not quiver in fear; but let us walk in confidence in the spirit of power, love and a sound mind.