Fear challenges Christian faith

One of the most significant challenges to your Christian faith is not temptation, doing the right things in the right way at the right time, nor simply not knowing the answers to difficult questions. The greatest challenge to living out a Christina faith is fear.

Now before you think this column is, like the candy that is lying around your house, a holdover from Halloween, I want you to realize the influence fear can have on your life. In Joshua, Chapter 1, the man whom the book is named for is commissioned to lead the Lord's people into the land that he has promised them. Part of what is told is to "Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go." (Joshua 1:9, ESV) Unhealthy fear can derail and imprison you. Healthy fear can humble you, reminding you that what you are about to do matters. Fear in the life of Joshua could cause him and the people he is to lead to miss the promises that God has for them. Fear in your life can do the same. But fear overshadowed by faith builds at least two traits.

Fear overshadowed by faith grows perseverance. Perseverance is the ability to keep moving forward despite the challenge. Anyone who has ever begun a race, learned a new skill, or started reading an epic novel is practicing perseverance. Fear that you cannot finish, you are incapable of learning anything new, or that this book will never end will squelch perseverance.

Fear overshadowed by faith also builds endurance. Endurance is the capacity to receive hardships and stay strong. To be like a boxer taking the blows from round after round until a champion is crowned. Fear flames the voice saying you cannot do this, you should have never begun, quit now. Fear overshadowed by faith builds the tenacity to keep on keeping on.

Never underestimate the influence that fear has on you. Fear left unchecked can consume and derail your life. Faith battles fear by looking to the Lord whom, there is no fear. Joshua combated his fear by trusting in the Lord and his promises. Fear can challenge your obedient faith. But obedient faith knows that fear is not of God, and he fears nothing or no one. Fear is overshadowed by the promise that God's presence never fails.