EACF 40 Days of Prayer - January 19, 2020

EACF 40 Days of Prayer 2020
Day 19: Pray for God's Courage

For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control. 
- 2 Timothy 1:6-7

The Spirit applies our union with Christ, and He bestows upon us special strength. We each are endowed with a gift or ability to use to build up the body of Christ and strengthen the faith of others - teaching, exhortation, encouragement, mercy, service, giving, administration are the main ones. And here Paul also tells Timothy God gave us a spirit not of fear. Why did Paul highlight this? Perhaps Timothy struggled with timidity, as a young pastor or church leader dealing with people of various ages and backgrounds. Perhaps his status as a mixed race person caused some insecurity (his father was Greek but his mother was Jewish). Or perhaps his personality avoided confrontation. Whatever it was, Timothy needed to hear this word: God was bringing him out of fear and into courage.

What do you need courage for? To admit your sin and fight it, even the first step of being humble before the mirror and admitting to yourself that you need to change and need help to do so. To confess your sins to others and ask for help, for accountability, for counsel, for grace. To take God's grace and to show it to yourself as you seek to walk humbly before others. To initiate relationships, to build deeper fellowship, to share God's love with others around you, to work to change the spiritual culture around you by obeying God. Pray for courage, not to settle and let the enemy keep up impotent, but to follow God in faith to where He wants to work more gloriously with grace.

Pray for courage! Pray for two others that need to overcome fear and to live by faith! Write down their names, and take a step of faith by sending them a note asking if there are things you can pray for them. I'm hearing reports of how God is blessing people through this particular step of actually communicating with one another! This is good, no very good! This is day 19 of praying for good.