“Praise ye the LORD. Blessed is the man that feareth the LORD, That delighteth greatly in his commandments. His seed shall be mighty upon earth: The generation of the upright shall be blessed. Wealth and riches shall be in his house: And his righteousness endureth for ever. Unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness: He is gracious, and full of compassion, and righteous. A good man sheweth favour, and lendeth: He will guide his affairs with discretion. Surely he shall not be moved for ever: The righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance. He shall not be afraid of evil tidings: His heart is fixed, trusting in the LORD. His heart is established, he shall not be afraid, Until he see his desire upon his enemies. He hath dispersed, he hath given to the poor; His righteousness endureth for ever; His horn shall be exalted with honour. The wicked shall see it, and be grieved; He shall gnash with his teeth, and melt away: The desire of the wicked shall perish.”
Psalm 112:1-10 KJV,https://bible.com/bible/1/psa.112.1-10.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 ...