A sound mind

We need to understand that God has not given us a spirit of fear. The dangers of fear are enormous and in a previous post, we considered different types of fears and how we can overcome them. Our focus for this post is to consider what it means to have a sound mind. A sound mind is a healthy mind,  the state that allows one to make good reasoning and thoughts. It is the totality of your mental well-being and intelligence.  For instance, when a person starts to act differently from the norm (goes to the park and starts to chase people away), that person is considered mentally unfit. The reason is that what the person did lacks intelligence. Similarly, when people undergo emotional trauma and end up with mental health issues, their actions indicate that they are not of sound mind. 

For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.(2 Timothy 1:7 NKJV)

Without a sound mind, one is likely to do things out of the norm. People have signed off their properties to total strangers because of a lack of sound mind. Others have wandered into dangerous situations because of a lack of sound mind. Yet few other people have committed suicide because of a lack of a sound mind. To be honest, we are likely to miss our destination in life when we operate without a sound mind. God is so interested in our mental well-being and the devil has always put fear in us so as to deny us of a sound mind. In 2 Timothy 1:7, Paul told his protégé Timothy,  that “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” God has given a spirit of sound mind. 

When we understand the importance of operating with a sound mind, we will be intentional about what goes into us. All information  will have to be filtered by the word of God. We need to train our minds to take what is good and to reject what is bad. We do that by filtering every information with the word of God. Further, we should be mindful of what we take in. We cannot consume anything that will be detrimental to our mental health. Consumption of substances that may trigger mental issues should be strictly avoided. Imagine, seeing the General Manager of your firm acting unruly in public as a result of substance abuse. If the same person returns to work the following day in a calm state, we still associate that person to the past attitude. Similarly, we should consider ourselves in the same way. If we understand that our mental well-being is important to God, to us, and to make society a better place for all, we will be considerate with whatever goes into us. 

Remember, when we fail to take charge of our mental well-being, we make ourselves susceptible to pain, shame and ridicule. 

To read more of these, grab my book A HEALTHY LIFESTYLE: YOUR LIVING SACRIFICE here.

We have not been given a spirit of fear

In 2006, I had my first experience of using the canopy bridge. Prior to that, I heard all sorts of stories about the bridge. In fact, all of us who went to use the bridge were psychologically hoping to be scared. We were in fear even before climbing the bridge. My younger brother was the first to step on the bridge. He was around 6 years old at that time. He fearlessly ran across the bridge shaking the 130 feet walkway. That act took away my fears but scared many of the children on the walkway. I had a great experience and took many beautiful pictures.  On the other hand, those who were afraid and cried all the way (because they couldn’t turn back) took teary and scared-face looking pictures. The fact that we were all afraid prior to visiting the canopy bridge reveals the extent to which fear can cause harm even when the object of fear is not in view.

Fear of height also known as acrophobia is just one of the many fears that we deal with in life. My daughter expressed great fear of insects (entomophobia) and that made her so scared. Thankfully, she does not react to insects hysterically as she used to do. Others have extreme fear of spiders (arachnophobia), some fear strangers (xenophobia), others are afraid of fear itself (phobophobia) and the lists goes on and on. Fear can make you weak and vulnerable. It can cause anxiety and depression. It can bring people to a condition of staying away from things or people. It can cause people to be violent towards others who are not like them (e.g. xenophobic people can hurt others). How do we deal with the spirit of fear? While helping our daughter to overcome fear, we realized that helping her to memorize and understand 2 Timothy 1:7 helped a lot.

For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. (2 Timothy 1:7 NKJV)

When we know that God has not given us a spirit of fear, we walk with boldness. When we encounter situations that should trigger fear and worry, we should be encouraged knowing that God has given us a spirit of power. When people seem unlovable, we should know that we have been given a spirit of love. When situations give us sleeplessness, anxiety and depression, we should know that we have been given a spirit of sound mind. Knowledge of these should act as a filter for what enters our hearts. When you know that God has not made you a coward, you do not entertain unnecessary thoughts that lead to fear. The Holy Spirit gives us power to stand our ground against any thought that brings fear. The Holy Spirit brings boldness and grants us the intense love for lost souls. Whenever the devil reminds us to be afraid, we should remind him of our position in the Lord. Even when fear steps in, we put our trust in God (Psalm 56:3).