“Thou makest us a reproach to our neighbours, A scorn and a derision to them that are round about us. Thou makest us a byword among the heathen, A shaking of the head among the people. My confusion is continually before me, And the shame of my face hath covered me, For the voice of him that reproacheth and blasphemeth; By reason of the enemy and avenger.”
Psalm 44:13-16 KJV,https://bible.com/bible/1/psa.44.13-16.KJV
Power, Love, and Discipline
One of the miracles of salvation is that when we have faith in Christ, God not only saves us—He also gives us the power to live according to His will. Your life in Christ is one that is empowered by the Holy Spirit living within you.
This is a great gift, but a big shift. It often takes time to change how we think and act. We may have bad habits that take hard work to correct, or patterns of thought that are challenging to break.
Thankfully, God promises to be with us and to empower us to make these changes in our life. When Paul is writing to his mentee Timothy, he encourages him to continue to develop the gift that God has given to him. While we are saved in an instant, it takes a lifetime to develop and work out what God is doing inside of us.
Paul reminds Timothy that God’s Spirit does not give us fear or cowardice. Those things are tools of the devil who is trying to keep us from God. But the Spirit of God empowers us with confidence in Him. He gives us the ...