“For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.”
– 2 Timothy 1:7
Hi James and Ellen,
Are you timid kids? Do you get intimidated easily? Is it good to have the spirit of timidity embedded in you? Are you risk taking kids? Do you like to be in the spotlight? Is it good to have the spirit of confidence embedded in you? In the second letter that Paul sent to Timothy – in 2 Timothy 1, Paul specifically tells Timothy that he needs to rebuke the stronghold of timidity that may have had a stranglehold on Timothy’s ability to effectively evangelize where Paul had tasked him to go to live – which was in the city of Ephesus. Verse 7 says, “For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.” When Paul was saying good-bye to a sobbing Timothy, Paul may have thought that he had not adequately enabled Timothy to be able to live in the city of Ephesus to take on the oversight responsibilities for the Christ-follower guys and gals who were meeting in different houses in the city of Ephesus. Timothy had spent years traveling with his mentor – who was Paul, on at least two of Paul’s missionary trips. Timothy was probably with Paul when Paul spent about three years in the city of Ephesus enabling Jew and Greek guys through being their professor at Tyrannus Hall. These were the guys who probably had become positioned elders in the different house fellowships of guys and gals that had been initiated in the city of Ephesus. Paul’s first letter to Timothy was task focused. Paul’s second letter – which was the very last letter that Paul wrote, that he wrote to Timothy from where he was imprisoned in the city of Rome, to your grandpaa has a more of an encouraging, interpersonal flavor to it. Your grandpaa thinks that there is a possibility that after Timothy received Paul’s first letter that Timothy wrote back to the guy who had spent so much time investing in him to tell his mentor that he really felt that his letter had come across as being impersonal – that if he wrote another letter to him, that he should write the letter in a more paternal way. Paul began his first letter to Timothy calling Timothy his ‘true son’ in the faith. Paul began his second letter to Timothy calling Timothy his ‘dear son’. After Paul tells Timothy in the second letter that he sent him that he is constantly remembering him in his prayers, Paul goes on to write about Timothy’s grandma – Lois, and Timothy’s ma – Eunice. Your grandpaa believes that Paul in this second letter that he sent to Timothy is a whole lot more intentional to affirm and approve Timothy than what Paul did in the first letter that he sent to Timothy.
Are you seen as fearful kids? Do you easily get anxious? Timothy seems to have struggled with the feelings of inadequacy and anxiety. Even though your grandmaa and grandpaa both feel that there are a lot of other guys and gals who can do a whole lot better than what God is having them do, they are still doing the very best that they can do with the gifting, training, education, life experiences, etc. that God preprogrammed to have and to learn from in their lives. Even though your grandmaa and grandpaa want to communicate a sense of trust in God, there have been times when your grandmaa and grandpaa have felt the angst stronghold wanting to take control of their lives. After the first house that your grandmaa and grandpaa moved into when they arrived in Guatemala was robbed in broad daylight by some very bold thieves, your grandmaa and grandpaa had a lot of trouble sleeping at night knowing that the robbers could return and . . . your grandpaa was in Haiti at this time last month. Your grandpaa was tasked by Adventures in Mission leadership to be the Interim Director over the Adventures in Mission’s personnel who were in Haiti while your grandpaa was there. A few weeks after a devastating earthquake shook Haiti this past January, Adventures in Missions began recruiting and sending short term ministry teams to Haiti to . . . when your grandpaa arrived in Haiti, Adventures in Mission’s personnel and short term ministry teams were using a private house and the house’s grounds for staying in and sleeping on. A Christ-follower pastor and his wife built and were living in this house when the earthquake happened. The pastor – Pastor Christian, is 74 years old. Pastor Christian is the pastor of at least a 10,000 member Port-au-Prince, Haiti Christ-follower fellowship of guys and gals and he has the oversight responsibilities for at least another dozen churches that are in the Port-au-Prince area. From the time that the violent earthquake hit Port-au-Prince to shortly before your grandpaa left Haiti, Pastor Christian – even though the earthquake did not damage his well-built house, slept in one of his two cars. Pastor Christian’s wife slept most of the time in her house’s entryway. Pastor Christian and his wife – even though they are committed Christ-followers, were very apprehensive about sleeping at night in their own beds in their own house because of having gone through the earthquake’s capricious, devastating wrath which so far has killed at least 250,000 guys, gals and kids. During the twelve days that your grandpaa stayed at Pastor Christian’s house in Haiti, your grandpaa slept on an air mattress in Pastor Christian’s sitting room. A few days before your grandpaa flew from Haiti to the United States, he saw to it that a large tent was bought for Pastor Christian and his wife to sleep in at night – leaving them very happy.
The timidity spirit cannot stand against the power that there is in using Jesus’ name against it, the discipline of using unconditional love and the using of common sense. What have you been doing to keep ‘timidity’ in check?
2 Timothy 1 (1064)