This morning I awoke with the thoughts of 2 Timothy 1:7
running through my head. After making the
coffee, I settled into my desk chair and began to look at various translations
of the verse. Over the years I have
looked at this particular scripture from every angle possible. It was one of the first scriptures that I
remember learning about in great detail at the very first Jr. High Snow Camp
that my wife and I brought our group to in the late 1970’s. Today I was drawn to the definition of the
word “fear” and found myself reading
from my array of Bible Commentaries and Greek/English Dictionaries.
Adam Clarke’s Commentary on the Bible makes the conjecture that
“Here is an allusion to the giving of the
law on Mount Sinai. This was
communicated with such terrible majesty as to engender fear in all the
Israelites: even Moses, on the occasion, did exceedingly fear and tremble. The Gospel was ushered in, in a much milder
manner… Nothing was terrific, nothing
forbidding; but all was inviting. The
very spirit and genius of it was a spirit of power, of love, and of a sound
mind.”
As I read that I thought back to Acts chapter two when the
Holy Spirit came and the message of the Gospel of Christ was first preached. That event caused those who were born again
to laugh, and dance and reel as if they were drunk! The bystanders who came rushing over to see
what all the commotion was about “said
jokingly ‘They’re drunk on sweet wine.’” (Acts 2:13 God’s Word ©)
The gospel filled those folks with the joy of the Lord!
Then Peter, who a little over a month before had denied
Jesus in the face of the people's accusations, was so filled with the love of
God for those same folks, boldly stood amongst them and preached the Word and
3000 were saved! As I considered all
this the Lord made it clear to me that His love is always accompanied by His
joy! Then I began to have flashbacks to
all the times over the last few months were I have been able to rejoice over
the current situation, and while under tremendous pressure to yield to stress
and the negative arguments screaming to me in the natural, to smile, be at
peace and crack a joke or two with me wife… and
laugh not only at the funny thought, but in the face of the enemy of our souls!
Yesterday began and ended with a good laugh. As I was helping my wife to get ready for the
day, I did something silly and my wife broke out into an elongated period of
laughter. She was laughing so hard that
she began to cry! Then as we walked into
the kitchen she started laughing so intensely again that I had to take hold of
her so that she wouldn't fall down! At the
end of the evening as I went over to help her up from the couch and into the
bedroom to get ready for bed, she looked up at me with such a gleam of life in
her eyes that it made my heart swell.
Then we both broke out into a bout of joyful laughter and thanksgiving
unto God!
Joy really is a powerful medicine for those of us who get
caught in the tangles of life. (See
Proverbs 17:22) But the true joy comes from the heart knowledge and personal
experience of His love. The two always
go together. Believe me when I say that
have seen and felt lots of both of these, one
without the other, in demonstration from some people around us, and their
actions come across as empty words and as a meaningless gesture.
Make the time to reacquaint yourself with God’s love for you
today. Then let the joy that always accompanies it fill you up so much that
you just have to go pour it out on someone else! You’ll also find yourself on top of the
circumstances that come against you instead of under there pile of stress and
pressure that they try to bring along with them. Have a good day. Stay in tune to His Word, and keep asking
yourself… “What am I expecting today?”
No comments:
Post a Comment
Your thoughts are welcomed. Please keep them within the context and flavor of this blog.