How I deal with fears.

“Why are you terrified? Do you not yet have faith?” (Mark 4: 40).

Saturday 30th January 2021, in the 3rd Week in Ordinary Time.

Can fear be learned? A child who sees her friend put her hand on a hot stove and be burned would be afraid to try the same thing. Just as fear can be learned and unlearned, faith and trust can be learned and forgotten.

The human mind can hold faith or fear but not faith and fear at the same time. In our key Scripture for today, we see the disciples of Jesus terrified by a raging sea. Jesus was in the boat sound asleep. They rudely woke Him up by their panicky screams. They showed that after all the miracles they had seen, they still lacked confidence in Jesus.

The first Reading from Hebrews and the Gospel from Mark deal with faith. Faith is probably the most important subject in the Bible. Without faith, we cannot please God. Without faith we cannot enjoy the fruits of Redemption like the Sacraments and miracles. In its essence, faith is a very simple concept to understand. Faith is believing that what God says to you is true and will happen come what may. For example: A woman prays for the fruit of the womb. God says: "Yes I will do it." The woman goes home and trusts in God's word. She knows that God's word cannot fail no matter how long it takes for the promise to be fulfilled. When it is fulfilled, she makes a note of it because she wants to remember it. She wants the remembrance to help her the next time she has needs.

Different people have developed different ways of dealing with fear. The one that works for me is from Mark 5: 36: "Fear is useless. All you need is trust."
I copy this Scripture and post it on the wall where I can see it easily. When I am afraid, I look at it and repeat it several times. I add: "This is my word from God. My word from God is not fear or worry or doubt but trust."

You can defeat fear, worry and doubt with faith. Read the Bible every day.

Daily Bible Verse @ SeekFirstcommunity.com