God DID NOT give you…
This post was originally written in July 2018
Today in church I began a conversation with a little three year old girl. I had spoken to her many times and had her in nursery before, but this was the first time she had spoken to me. She was actually the one that initiated the conversation. As worship was ending I sat on the floor in the back of the church to be on her level. We talked about the flags she was waving and how happy it made Jesus to worship freely. We talked about her dog and the new baby in her family. I prophesied over her about some wonderful things I saw her doing as an adult. She smiled at me with all the knowing and curiosity of a child who hasn’t been taught different by the world yet.
The pastor then got up and shared 2 Timothey 1:7.
We all know that verse. We’ve heard it again and again.
I looked this little girl in her eyes and asked her “Did you know you were given a spirit of power, love and a sound mind?”
and like any three year old she promptly answered: “no i don’t”.
I laughed.
“You do, God gave it to you! Do you know what you don’t have?”
She shook her head.
“A spirit of fear!”
She giggled “yes I do!”
I laughed again. I knew she was disagreeing with me just for the sake of it, but as I got up off the floor and climbed back into the pew the Lord spoke to me about that conversation.
“How many adults speak that way about themselves?” the LORD asked me.
“Woah!” I thought. I know I’ve been guilty of it.
We know that verse. It’s one of those feel good, verse of the day bible app verses. We put it on a pretty background in cursive font and share it on social media. We love the thought of it: God gave us a spirit of power, love and self control. NOT fear.
That lie though, the one we believe to be true, is spoken over ourselves too many times. The lie that says “no I don’t. I don’t have power or love or self control. I’m afraid and its a part of me. God created me like this.”
From a young age I had a lie spoken over my life. I was a child who’s top love language was NOT physical touch. I’ve somewhat learned how to deal with it. As a wife with a husband who is one of the most physically affectionate people I have ever met, I have learned to show and receive love through this language even though it is foreign to me.
But back to that lie.
The lie I grew up with wasn’t that physical touch isn’t my love language. That is a cold hard fact.
The lie I grew up believing and became cemented into my identity was that I was not a people person.
Because I didn’t like being touched, because I didn’t like people getting all up in my personal space, I was labeled by my family and others around me as “not a people person”.
So that was my excuse. For 20+ years I believed I was created not to like people and so I didn’t have to like people.
How many times do you hear people say “I was born this way! I can’t help it, God made me like this!”? You may have even said that about yourself a time or two.
I’m going to go ahead and tell you something that might make you introverts cringe.
You were created to be a people person.
You may love people in a different way than others, but you were created to love people and be in relationships with them!
I know so many people that are amazing bible scholars that know the good book through and through. They know so many wonderful facts about Jewish customs and spiritual warfare and prophesy and any other Christian topic you could think of, yet they are not connected to people.
They us that phrase, “God made me like this!” as their excuse to not join a small group, not become connected with a church, not reach out to others.
It was my excuse when the Holy Spirit prompted me to pray for a stranger. “I’m not a people person, I don’t have to do it.”
There were people I knew were hurting or needing someone to love on them within the church, but I pretend I didn’t have to do anything about it because God created me like that.
My father-in-law once shared with me that he used to be a very shy person, until the Holy Spirit convicted him of it. Holy Spirit showed him that being shy was actually being selfish. His fear of man was leading him to not share the gifts, talents, and love he had to give.
Obviously that conversation stuck with me, because here I am relaying it to you. It has been a daily journey in my personal battle with the fear of man. It wasn’t until that conversation though, that I saw my unwillingness to connect with others as selfish.
I probably have said this before, but just in case you forgot:
the opposite of fear isn’t faith, it’s love.
If I wasn’t loving people, and I was holding back my love from others, then I was living in the opposite. I was living in fear.
How many times has someone asked God for a miracle, a friend, a sign, a word of encouragement? How many times has God sent me to answer that, but I hadn’t responded because of fear?
The thought of that crushes me, but I have forgiven myself and know God has forgiven me for each and every one of those times that I chose fear over love. I will have redemption for every time I believed one of those lies. But where to go now? How do I make sure I don’t sink back into believing all those lies that used to make up my identity?
I’ve broken the power of those lies over my life, so now all I have to do is focus on what I do want to be like and what I know the truth is.
Who do I want to be more like? Jesus.
What do I know to be true? That I was called to love others.
Jesus loved the world, and that’s what we are to do, too! What would your life look like if you stopped fearing people and started spending every moment in love?
Stop being selfish. You are holding back all the wonderful things the Lord has put inside of you to share with the world. It’s time to step into your spirit of power and love, NOT the spirit of fear.
