“For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.”

Fear can be a gift of work. Let’s talk about fear and what it does to each of us in our jobs.  Fear is a real emotion in our jobs, although no one ever really talks about it. It starts with a general insecurity and fear of our job performance and job loss. Long ago, the contract and assurances of lifetime employment was broken. Since then, we all fear at one point or another that supply and demand will take over and the greater supply of talent than demand will catch up with us and we will “be out”. The news will be full this week of year-end stories of companies tightening their belt and having more layoffs. Our job insecurities are fears. We also fear how others will perceive our work and the reactions to the positions and stands that we take. Many drives into the office in the morning or logging onto Zoom are filled with butterflies in our stomach. The problem with living in fear is that we then fall into the timidness that Timothy also describes. Being timid then leads us to stand still and miss opportunities, or worse yet to fail to take the stands that we know we should. We cannot eliminate all fear in our lives but we can recognize and remind ourselves that it is a gift of work because it brings us back to Him to help us through.

And also, that is why Timothy’s verse can make such a huge difference in how we go to work today. Imagine that we could really, truly, replace the feeling of fear with power. Add on love and self-discipline and you have the whole package. Today, as we start our work, think about the areas, issues, and people where we get that feeling of fear inside of us and then pray to have fear replaced with the gift of power that can come from God being taken to work with us!

Reference: 2 Timothy 1:7 (New Living Testament)