Posted on by Abe Austin

Faith vs Fear- Psalm 56:4, Matthew 10:28, Doctrine and Covenants 101:36-37

In God I will praise his word, in God I have put my trust; I will not fear what flesh can do unto me.

And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

Wherefore, fear not even unto death; for in this world your joy is not full, but in me your joy is full.
Therefore, care not for the body, neither the life of the body; but care for the soul, and for the life of the soul.

COMMENTARY

And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul
Therefore, care not for the body, neither the life of the body; but care for the soul, and for the life of the soul
As we have mentioned, part of replacing fear with faith is acknowledging that God possesses all power, and that He can save us from every threat imaginable…if it is His will. The other element of surrendering our fear, then, is to accept the times when it is not God’s will. We need to believe that even in those moments we are still preserved in what really matters.
Many the faithful disciple has prayed for relief from sickness, oppression, and even death, yet been told “no, this trial is one that you are supposed to pass through.” At first this might sound like being abandoned back to fear, but in reality it is being lifted to greater faith.

For in this world your joy is not full, but in me your joy is full
If our hope is that depending on God will shield us from every pain, then our happiness is still tied to worldly security. We are still living in the “fear of the world.” And even if God did circumvent all worldly pain and give us all worldly pleasure, our joy would still be unfulfilled, because this world simply does not have what it takes to provide completeness. Fulfillment of the flesh is a game you just cannot win.
God wants something better for us. He does not want to merely mask our fears, He wants to help us overcome them. So sometimes He isn’t going to give us worldly comfort and He isn’t going to spare us worldly pain. What He is going to do, though, is help us through worldly pain with spiritual comfort. In this way He is bit-by-bit weaning us from the flesh and supplanting it with the soul. And in the needs of the soul He does provide all and we do find fullness of joy.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Faith vs Fear- Numbers 14:9, 1 Corinthians 2:5, Psalm 34:4

Only rebel not ye against the Lord, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us: their defence is departed from them, and the Lord is with us: fear them not.

That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

I sought the Lord, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.

COMMENTARY

I sought the Lord, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears
Our modern culture often urges us to just let go of all our fears. That, frankly, is far easier said than done. Perhaps the worries that we put on ourselves can be released, all of those little frettings that really don’t matter. But when it comes to external powers threatening our basic needs, fear seems to be baked into our very nature.
We don’t just need a different frame of mind in these situations, we need deliverance! Fear is something that we have to be saved from. Otherwise it will always be a part of our lives.

That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God
The Lord is with us: fear them not
And fear will only be let go of when our dependence on the world’s power has been replaced by something else. Our deliverance is in God showing us that His power is sufficient to save, and that His desire is to protect. Suddenly it doesn’t matter so much what the world can do, God can trump it all. God calls us and we are able to rise above that cycle of fear. We are able to trust in something higher.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Faith vs Fear- 1 Samuel 15:24, Jeremiah 17:5

And Saul said unto Samuel, I have sinned: for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord, and thy words: because I feared the people, and obeyed their voice.

Thus saith the Lord; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord.

COMMENTARY

Because I feared the people, and obeyed their voice
Yesterday we noted how fear is used to try and control others. Today we will look at what it is like to be the recipient of fear. In Saul’s case he chose to do something that he felt wrong about, because he feared. Where faith empower us to meaningful action, fear it seems is a principle of inaction.
Consider how the moment of fear is so often often described as being crippling, freezing, or paralyzing. It is a force by which men and the devil seek to prevent the undesired actions of another, or to cause them to perform an action that they feel contrary to. To the person being made afraid, then, their actions are not to achieve some greater good, but simply to avoid or mitigate pain.

Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord
Pilate feared the people, too, when they called for the crucifixion of Jesus. Peter feared the people when the identified him as on of the Lord’s followers during his trial. Each of them had their “heart depart from the Lord” because of their trust (or fear) in the power of the people, and did things they felt wrong about.
Many the vice is entered into by the root of fear. We fear what others will think of us, we fear not receiving approval, we fear being left alone. By those fears we willingly do the very things we know we shouldn’t. Not because we think those things are good, but simply to avoid or mitigate pain.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Faith vs Fear- 2 Corinthians 7:5, 2 Kings 6:15-17

But we were troubled on every side; without were fightings, within were fears.

And when the servant of the man of God was risen early, and gone forth, behold, an host compassed the city both with horses and chariots. And his servant said unto him, Alas, my master! how shall we do?
And he answered, Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them.
And Elisha prayed, and said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.

COMMENTARY

Behold, an host compassed the city both with horses and chariots. And his servant said unto him, Alas, my master! how shall we do?
Fear may be considered as nothing more than the realization that the world possesses more power than us. And that power, if turned against us, we are powerless to resist. Whatever securities we obtain, we know that they are insufficient if enough opposition comes to bear.
When one does not believe in God or His power then fear is the only natural response. Belief in God and His power is, by definition, faith, and so fear is the result of an absence of faith. Elisha’s servant could not see God’s presence in the world, and so he was left to fear. With his limited perspective that was all he could feel.

Without were fightings, within were fears
I find it very illuminating how this scripture casts violence as the outward manifestation of an inward fear. Those that have acknowledged the awful power of the world often then try to use it to gain power over others. They have felt its ability to bend them, and they know that if they can be made afraid others can as well.
And so after being made afraid we perform all manner of violent behaviors in an attempt to promulgate that same fear into others. A vicious cycle begins, one where we try to shore up against that which we cannot control by domineering over all that we can.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Faith vs Fear- Question

I have just finished a study examining the need for opposites in our lives. There were one such opposite-paring that particularly stood out to me during my research: that of faith-and-fear. Essentially these two qualities describe how we view the unknown.

Faith is the hope of good things yet unrealized, whereas fear is the dread of bad things yet unrealized. While it might seem inconsequential whether we view the future in positive or negative light, the fact that it is the future means that we can influence and change it by our state-of-mind. Thus the faithful are more likely to bring about the future that they hoped for, and the fearful to bring about the future that they dreaded.

This is already very interesting, but I feel we are still only scratching the surface. For example while there is faith, there is also delusion. While there is fear, there is also preparation. I want to understand better where we draw the line between those. I want to know what the faith-filled life looks like, and how I can tell where I am on the faith-fear spectrum. Over the next few days I’ll dive into scriptural passages on these topics and we’ll see what lessons can be gleaned from them.