Choosing Faith Over Fear

EXPOSE | What is there to fear?

“So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt

EXPLORE | Free to respond to fear

It may go without saying, but with the topic of fear, I am sensing the need to remind myself that wisdom is a way of handling life, not avoiding it. We can’t become so ‘wise’ that we are able to avoid all the scary parts of life. Wisdom is the means by which we navigate what God decides to allow–and intends to use–in our lives for our good and His glory.

That includes fear.

While being wise(r) will no doubt help us avoid a number of pitfalls and keep us from otherwise being foolish, fear actually plays a part in helping us avoid those things in life that are dangerous and should be avoided. Wisdom recognizes that there are legitimate things we should fear, but we are not to, as FDR challenges us, fear the “nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes.”

Having faith in God’s provision or protection does not mean that it eliminates our fear. Nor is it blind acceptance of something you have not thought about or know nothing about — that is blissful ignorance. It is not saying you believe something that you’re not actually acting on — that is hypocrisy. And faith over fear is not making decisions without any doubts or concerns of the outcomes — that is carelessness or foolishness.
Robert Hampshire, Pastor of Worship and Discipleship at Cheraw First Baptist Church

Instead, we are to courageously step through “fear itself” to “convert retreat into advance.” In one sense, fear can be empowering. For without it, there would be no courage.

I was reminded of this while watching Chris Pratt’s new Amazon series The Terminal List. So as to not give too much away, I’ll describe it this way: he’s a Navy SEAL returning home from a botched mission extremely motivated (read: raging revenge) to hold accountable everyone responsible for having anything to do with what happened to him, his team, and his family.

In the midst of his ‘new mission’, we are shown scenes of what he and his team experienced during that last fatal encounter together. Where the terror they faced would have paralyzed anyone else, we see the very definition of courage.

Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the assessment that something else is more important than fear.
Franklin D. Roosevelt

Fear begs an answer to penetrating questions like, “what have you got?”, “how badly do you want it?”, and “is this really worth it?”

Because it is unavoidable and can paralyze us if not confronted, fear has to be faced.

So, how do we counteract the effect fear has to render us immovable? Faith.

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
Hebrews 11:1

We need only consider two words in Hebrews 11:1 to put to rest the idea that faith is “a leap into the unknown just because it feels right.” The words ‘assurance’ and ‘conviction’ mean that faith is our being convinced based on evidence.

In other words, we can be confident because there is reason to be confident, not because we feel like we should. To paraphrase Greg Koukl/team at Stand to Reason, biblical faith is: “trust in God, based on knowledge, rooted in evidence.”

EXECUTE | Developing faith over fear

As we look at developing faith over fear, Stand to Reason’s concise description is a good place to start. They provide three principals we should understand more fully:

Trust in God – our conviction demands action and that means putting our trust in God. That requires that we’re not ‘mostly’ on board, but are fully committed to, and invested in, God. And when it comes to the unknown, as Randy Alcorn describes, we are to “trust in the authority and credibility of the one who promised.”
Based on knowledge – we have an understanding, not just a list of facts; a knowledge of the ‘why’ that convinces us to make this commitment. It would not be the case except for the understanding we have of the evidence.
Rooted in evidence – our knowledge and understanding are based on facts; information that can actually be verified and supported. And in the case of God, a proven track record of faithfulness is fulling His word.

With that as a basis, there are a few more points we can add to that as we develop faith over fear.

Know the truth… AND believe it

Simply knowing about something, even something that is true, will not be fruitful unless we believe it–that is, we have reason to believe, so we act. In this case, we trust in God.

With the Spirit to strengthen us, the Son to sympathize with our weakness, and the Father to care for us in all things, we have no cause for despair.
Kevin DeYoung

The strength to endure

Knowing and believing is not a once-and-done proposition. In Hebrews 12:3, it says we are to “consider him who endured such opposition for sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” Jesus’ persistence in “testifying to the truth” is our example and motivation for developing the strength to endure and not grow wearing in practicing faith in the face of fear.

We must persistently train ourselves to know and live God’s truth. It allows us to swap fear for peace, just as a runner pushes through impossible amounts of pain to go the full distance.
Meg Bucher

Flame fanning

Paul, in his second letter to Timothy, not only reminds us of God’s gift to us regarding fear but also how to cause it to spread: “I am reminded of your sincere faith… For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God… for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control” (2 Timothy 1:5a, 6a, 7). Let your ever-increasing faith in God demonstrate to those around you the “spirit of power, love, and self-control.”

“So let us not be people who “shrink back and are destroyed;” let us be “those who have faith and preserve [our] souls” (Hebrews 10:39).
Robert Hampshire

A part of becoming wise means we are less likely to be fooled, at least not easily. Once we accept the fact that facing things that scare us is inevitable, we must resolve to remain persistent in placing our trust in God. In doing so, we will continually feed our minds the truth about the One whom we can always trust in the face of whatever we might fear so that we may “convert retreat into advance.”

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