Have you ever found yourself in a place where you’ve grown weary of the journey or just tired of feeling like you’re spinning your wheels?  Have you ever had a time when you’ve become fearful of what the future holds…fearful that things won’t play out they way you dreamed.  Perhaps you doubt your abilities and strength to carry out your calling.  Maybe you are in a rut and you just can’t see past your circumstances to move forward. There is some valuable advice in the Word of God, a letter that Paul wrote to Timothy.  It is actually one of my favorite passages because I have experienced it within my own life and seen it work in the lives of others. 

Timothy, who like Paul and is called to preach, is pulling back and reacting to his circumstances with a timid-fearful approach. Paul knows and cares for Timothy like a brother.  He knows the faith that Timothy has within and personally laid hands on him when he was anointed into the ministry of sharing the gospel. 

With great concern Paul writes a letter to
Timothy and shares these words of encouragement with him, “For this very 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 did not give you a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline. So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord, or ashamed of me His prisoner.  But join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God.” 2Timothy 1:6-8

Paul is telling Timothy to NOT pull back in fear, to not “react” but to be proactive by fanning into flame the Gift of preaching…of sharing the gospel and to get busy doing what God has gifted him to do! Paul is saying don’t respond in fear….that is not you! Respond in the spirit of power (from the Holy Spirit living within you). Respond in love (a love that sees beyond the action of man) and respond in self-discipline (that is grounded in the strength and truth of your Lord Jesus Christ).

Like Timothy I have had times when I have reacted…grown weary…and responded with a defeated attitude.  You know what happens when you react?  You became saturated with fear; you react by acting unloving to others and to God.  Life quickly becomes undisciplined as you are paralyzed in a fog of no purpose with no focus.

See, when you pull back you crack open the door to disobedience and to living a life overcome by fear—the fruit of fear is the total opposite of the fruit of living in the Spirit. Fear gives Satan the opportunity to flood your mind with lies and your life with a defeated spirit. That is not what God has for you!

God has gifted each of you with a purpose utilizing your gifts. The using of your gifts are an expression of the Holy Spirit living within you. He wants you to live continually fanning into flame the gift of God within you. For each of you that is different but to each it is vital to carrying out God’s call on your life and enriching the lives of others.

Paul was also called to preach and yet he was chained in prison as he wrote this encouraging letter to Timothy.  At that time, Paul wasn’t out among the people preaching to the masses.  He was imprisoned but he still continued to carry out the call on his life.  Maybe things aren’t going the way you dreamed, maybe it seems like you aren’t making a difference, or maybe you are stuck. Fan into flame the gift of God within you.  Get busy doing what you have been called to do.   

Perhaps God is doing something bigger in what appears to be a small minuscule kind of way.  Paul’s letters may have seemed small at the time but today they make up most of the New Testament and continue to make a vital difference in the lives of others.  I’m sure, while Paul was writing this letter, he wasn’t thinking; I sure do hope this makes it into the Bible—God’s Holy inspired Word. Paul was just allowing the Holy Spirit to use him to carry out God’s Truth through his everyday circumstances.   

Let me encourage you to “FAN INTO FLAME” the gift of God that is within you.  Don’t react to your circumstances or to your disappointments, instead be proactive and continue to fan into flame the gifts, the service, and the opportunities God places before you.