Faith Against Fear

If you can strike fear into the heart of a man, you have already gone far toward destroying his effectiveness. Fear is a paralyzer of people and is no doubt a “secret weapon” of Satin himself. Of course, there are those who will remind us that fear is not always paralyzing—that sometimes in great fear a man will rise to feats of physical performance which he could not otherwise accomplish. And this may be true as to an act of emergency—but the strength of fear is quickly spent, and is not to be compared with the strength that comes with calm, quiet courage. Fear is the enemy of faith; it is the companion of darkness and despair. It will not keep company with hope; it sets the stage for failure. It is a malignancy of mind and of the spirit—a killer and destroyer of man. And, as all of its victims have discovered, peace will not dwell with fear. A generation that has had reason to have its fears multiplied would do well to remind itself that fear is crowded out only by something which is stronger and firmer than fear. Fear cannot longer sustain itself where there is firm faith—faith in the future, faith in God, faith in the fact that wrongs will be righted and that truth will triumph. We need and must have faith against fear—faith to pursue our purposes, faith to keep fear from impairing our effectiveness. “…and they awake him, and say unto him, Master carest thou not that we perish?…And he said unto them, Why are ye so fearful? How is it that ye have no faith?” Unto a fearful generation there come against these guieting words from the Father of us all: “Be still, and know that I am God.”