Fear and faith

Several years ago, I went with our church to do mission work in Ukraine. We have a missionary there from our church that teaches English using the Bible. While we were there, we were able to do some street evangelism, talked with people in nursing homes, taught our classes and immersed ourselves in the culture. It was an amazing trip.

God used that trip to point some things out about me. Things I did not want to recognize, much less deal with at the time. The major lesson actually came on our way home. We made it through the airport security, and we were waiting at the gate. But we kept on waiting. Our plane was delayed six hours!

Now the lesson God was trying to teach me was to deal with fear. You see the problem was the plane was being repaired. We watched through the window as they tore apart one of the engines on our plane. It was the only one that could make the trip, so we had to wait. Fear showed its ugly head that day. To say I was nervous is an understatement. It only got worse.

After we boarded the plane and took off, the pilot decided it was a good time to tell us what had happened. He said he had full confidence in the repair, but the delay was caused by the fuel lines falling off! Excuse me? They fell off?! I was so glad and relieved to land in New York nine hours later.

Fear, my friends, is the enemy of faith. Its sole purpose is to keep us from relying on God. Long before this trip, I had laid my claim on my favorite verse. Joshua 1:9 says, “Haven’t I commanded you; be strong and courageous? Do not be afraid or dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

In the verses before this, over and over God tells Joshua to be strong and courageous. Yet he needed to hear it again. This is a lesson I needed then, and to be honest, I still need it now. The purpose of fear is to overshadow your faith. We cannot allow that to happen.

Over and over again, God has shown us that he will watch over us. That does not mean nothing bad can ever happen, we all know it still will. What it means is that God is there to walk with you through it. Just as the Apostle Paul says, “To live is Christ, to die is gain.” No matter what happens, if you are a believer in Christ, then it will be ok. If we live, we continue to serve Christ, if we pass away, we are with him in glory.

The point is this, don’t let fear overtake you. Don’t let it master you. Make your faith strong, work it out every day so that it can be strong. No matter what you go through, remember God has you.