True strength isn't about how hard you can fight.
It's about how much you can endure.
Faith is the armour that protects your spirit when the body wants to quit.
“You see, when men and women become Christians, when their eyes are opened to the truth, they realize the unutterable, indescribable folly of putting their own thoughts and ideas before those of God.”
Kill the Fleas
Paul reminded Timothy to stir up the gift that God had given him. Then the Apostle addressed "the spirit of fear."( 2 Timothy 1:7) If you evangelize, you will be familiar with the spirit of fear. It hangs around the evangelistic Christian as a flea hangs around a dog. Fear will be on your back the moment you decide to do something to reach the lost. It will try to get its sharp teeth into your flesh and inject its irritating poison. But Paul gave Timothy a repellant. He said that he had received the Spirit of "power, love, and a sound mind."( 2 Timothy 1:7) Jesus told His disciples to wait on God for that "power."(Acts 1:8) The promised power overcomes our fears. It kills the fleas. Paul then tells Timothy to be unashamed of the Gospel. So kill the fleas and let love have its way.
There goes another minute. Gone forever. Go share your faith while you still have time.
Heaven Without Hell
It was the founder of the Salvation Army, William Booth, who warned, "The chief danger of the 20th Century will be religion without the Holy Spirit, Christianity without Christ, forgiveness without repentance, salvation without regeneration, politics without God, and heaven without Hell." His words were partially fulfilled in the 20th Century, but how true they have become nowadays. Heaven is preached without Hell. Forgiveness is offered without the necessity of repentance. We have forsaken the straight gate, and opened it wide for the lost, and now much of the Church looks and acts no different from the world. The only answer to this dilemma is to thunder the fear of God from the pulpit. It is through the fear of the Lord that men depart from sin, and they won't do that as long as we compromise our message.
There goes another minute. Gone forever. Go share your faith while you still have time.