Is fear affecting your faith? I ask because it’s been a tough week for human beings—period. Coronavirus has completely taken over and yet it hasn’t cornered the field on bad news, has it? There are still plenty of other hard things happening right now. This is #2 in my Lenten Series, and this week it’s all about, you guessed it, faith (For #1 click here).
I don’t know about you, but I can literally feel fear in the atmosphere as I drive through town. It’s almost palpable. So, let’s do this, and talk about how fear affects faith because that is something we can do to fight in this current battle.
I really believe that fear is one of the enemy’s favorite tactics for upending people. He’s a joy robber, who feeds anxiety by creating a giant storm of yuck. When chaos rolls in it blows through everything, showing no distinction or prejudice—everyone and everything is up for grabs. And he always confronts our faith stand.
Where is God?
Does God really care?
What is God thinking?
You know what I mean, right? I’m sure we’ve ALL been there—maybe even this week?
I met with a friend, yesterday who needed to talk about this very thing, and then fielded another phone call this morning from another who is facing an unbelievable crisis. Big, real, hideous situations, nothing to do with Coronavirus, but sandwiched nicely, right in the middle of it all. As we talked, both friends said this, “I don’t know how a person walks through this kind of process without God.”
So, is fear affecting your faith? I want to encourage you to give yourself the gift of asking and answering that question as honestly as you can because there is a breakthrough in truth-telling before the Lord.
The inheritance of faith
As sons and daughters of God, we are not shielded from the effects of the brokenness of this world. Sin, sickness, and loss come at us all the time, but because of Jesus, we have hope. He leads us out of the darkness and into the light, into healing and wholeness. That’s our God—that’s what He does!
If you follow me at all, you will know that I repeatedly bring us back to this point: Faith in God is not a once and done thing and it is not an umbrella that covers everything in all our lives. Oh, how I wish it was, but what I’ve discovered is that as I work out my faith with fear and trembling, I will face a faith crisis in hard situations. These are the places of process and practice—and God is present, even when it feels like He’s not.
We must learn to be honest with ourselves and before God about the issues of the heart because we do not have to surrender to the enemy’s tactics. The fact of the matter is that we have an inheritance of faith, which keeps us connected to God. As children of God, we have been saved and are in the process of being transformed into the likeness of God, so actually, we are not obligated to give way to belief systems that contradict God (Romans 8:12)
Is fear affecting your faith? Have you had a chance to sit and evaluate the state of your soul lately? What do you do when a crisis shows up and everything feels out of control?
I invite you, right now in this present moment, whatever it is, to just stop and breathe. I won’t pacify you by telling you to calm down, but how about this? Maybe, just maybe we can work our way through it all together?
Acknowledging fear
Is fear affecting your faith?
I wish someone had asked me that question twenty-six years ago when the first signs of anxiety began to show up in my life. For me, it was a heavy presence that was almost suffocating. Intuitively I understood that I needed to move away from the stressors, so that’s pretty much how I managed it. And, it worked, mostly…
During my first year away at college, however, I hit the wall. I thought I had been managing well and was feeling pretty good when everything fell apart. My carefully constructed process of self-protection couldn’t help my war against the inner battle and I finally had to face the true issue, I was afraid.
I’ll never forget that night because it set me on a new course as I began to recognize how fear had been affecting my faith. In the midst of some raw and angry prayers, the Lord simply said, “You don’t trust me.” There was no malice or accusation in it, just a statement of truth and it stunned me into silence.
At first, I struggled to believe that it was true, but before I could deny it, I saw it clearly that He was right. I wanted to trust Him, but I didn’t because there were broken places in my life that needed to be healed.
So right there in the middle of my mess, He invited me to trust Him. And all those feelings of fear were big, but I took my tiny seed of faith and set it next to my giant seed of unbelief and made a deal with God. I gave Him all I had and then I told Him that would have to be enough. In love, He met me there and lead me into something new…
Trusting and standing in faith
Is fear affecting your faith?
That question confronts the issue, but for faith to root and grow means you have to get ruthless and cut it off the fear. Trusting God means surrendering the fear.
You and me? We can make that much more complicated than it needs to be, not that I’m saying it isn’t hard, but it isn’t as hard as we want it to be either. Here’s the thing, when we surrender the fear and choose to trust God, it releases Him to fight on our behalf—even if that means inner pruning for healing and health.
I have been reading the book of John for Lent and have found such a comfort in studying the life of Jesus, over these last couple of weeks. The reason I share this is that there is no better place to strengthen faith than by meeting with God over His word. The way Jesus believed God in the face of challenging circumstances demonstrates the way of Faith.
Jesus came from Heaven to earth to reconcile the world to the Father. He knew His mission, agreed to it, and walked it out, but it wasn’t easy. Let me turn our attention to the story of Nicodemus (John 3).
After spending 40 days in the wilderness, Jesus began to minister to people through signs and wonders during the Passover celebration in Jerusalem. People were impressed and began to trust him, but He didn’t trust them back (John 2:23-25).
Interesting, eh? Jesus didn’t trust them back. I don’t think I’d ever really completely caught that before, but it totally sets the scene for His secret encounter with Nicodemus.
When we make provision for fear
Nicodemus was among all those people, who were impressed with the miracles of Jesus, but his fear of man held him back. Fear of rejection, fear of retribution of his peers, and fear of being wrong, all lead Him to approach Jesus under to covering of dark. This secret meeting was his way of nursing his fear while entertaining his fascination with the Son of Man.
You know what, though? Jesus met him under those terms. Nicodemus began with flattery commending the miraculous things Jesus had done, affirming that God had indeed sent him, but his fear and pride acted as blinders, producing questions rooted in fear. Nicodemus didn’t understand what Jesus was saying.
What do you mean?
How does that happen?
How is that even possible?
When we make provision for fear to rule in our lives, it actually blinds us and holds us back from the very good things of God. I wonder what Nicodemus would have said if Jesus had straight up asked him, “Is fear affecting your faith?”
Jesus wasn’t surprised by his doubt and He’s not surprised by ours, either. He spoke the truth and that encounter became an invitation to Nicodemus to trust and believe, God. And, you know what? Jesus offers each of us that same invitation.
Trust me.
So, here’s a tough question. Can you identify situations where you have nursed fear while entertaining your fascination with Jesus? Yeah, I know, I don’t like asking that one either, but the honest answer helps expose the truth making it much, much easier to surrender it.
Is fear affecting your faith
After having come face to face with the root of fear in my life, I have come to hate even the scent of it.
I’m not afraid, I’m concerned.
Have you ever uttered that statement? Yeah, me too. That’s what it looks like to make provision for fear. Denial doesn’t solve the problem though, it exasperates it even giving it full reign.
When fear leads we resort to manipulation and control tactics. We impose them upon ourselves and on others. Unresolved fear issues can even lead to co-dependency, anger, depression, anxiety, and abuse—none of which any of us want to bear in life—and while these may be extremes we need to understand that they don’t just come upon us. Extremes are the product of an accumulation of fear.
Is fear affecting your faith?
When the big chaotic storms blow in, what do you?
What’s your process?
How do you manage your feelings?
What do you do with it all?
Listen, I’m not saying that fear is always a bad thing, because God created us with a fight or flight reflex. Fear is designed to be an indicator, it’s supposed to help us discern between danger and safety, but it works best when we are connected to the Father. Situations always look very different through the lens of the greatness of God, then through the lens of the impotence of fear. What I’m saying, is that fear is a terrible leader.
What to do with the fear…
Ultimately, we need to learn how to cut off the roots of fear, which is a process to be sure, but the first step is to begin by acknowledging it and calling it out.
Yeah, I know, it’s clear and simple, but nothing about that feels easy, does it? That’s the fear talking. Fear only speaks from one perspective, so the best way to gain leverage is to override it with what is true. To do that we have to start with what we believe.
Who does God say He is?
What does God say He can do?
What has God done?
Theology of God matters. There is a big difference between believing in God and believing God, right? That was the issue for Nicodemus. Believing in God is something we can do from a distance, but believing Him means getting right close. So, that night I described, when the LORD confronted me about fear, all I had was a tiny little seed of faith, but that’s all I needed to get the process started.
A tiny seed of faith planted, is enough truth to over-ride the fear. In that moment of agreement, the LORD begins to do the work laying the foundation for complete transformation and healing. Our lives are filled with a thousand of these moments, where we choose to trust God. Trust activates faith, which gives us a foundation to stand firm as we walk in obedience in the middle of the storm.
The process of becoming…
What about Nicodemus? The exact outcome of his interaction with Jesus that night is not outlined for us in scripture, but if you turn to John 19:38-42, you’ll see that Nicodemus was profoundly affected by Jesus’ words, even if he began that journey with doubts. He helped in a very public way, with the Jewish burial custom, caring for the body of Christ.
Something shifted for Nicodemus as he watched Jesus from afar, but His life didn’t change until He came close and believed. This is encouraging because it reminds me that I am in the process of becoming; that we are in the process of becoming transformed into the likeness of Christ.
Pride likes to rear up and mock us when we don’t grasp the truth right away, but God’s grace invites us, into a holy undoing, where He does the work of unraveling the yuck. His truth will always supersede fear if we choose to believe Him.
Is fear affecting your faith?
“Feed your fears and faith will starve. Feed your faith and your fears will starve to death.” 1
Isn’t that a great quote? The best way to feed your faith is to feed on the Promises of God. Surround yourself with them. Speak them into your soul until faith takes hold and you can proclaim them over the circumstances. That’s it—live from that place!
Want more? Sign-up for my weekly devotional, The Grace Notes, which comes loaded with exclusive content, daily readings, and journal prompts.