Fear Busters

“Let the faithful exult in glory;

let them sing for joy on their couches.”

~Psalm 149:5 (NRSV)

What is a prayer is the hope of the establishment of ease beyond the paralysis of fear and the quotient of sorrow in loss; that the couch, or bed, might be a place for happiness, not sobbing tears. And through faith, it can be.

Only in growing portions of empowering faith can we overcome, to the provision of such joy, those fears that threaten to squash and mutilate our joy—those which we claim victory over in the Lord’s name.

Dissecting Faith

Becoming a fear buster is apportioning less and less effort in the expression of faith.

But we need to know what comprises faith. Trust, courage and glorious valour have become cousins within the family that is faith. There are other relatives; distant third cousins as well as sisters and brothers. Each family is different, but they’re the same to the end of capacity—to struggle well, stoically, within truthful bounds.

Good faith and bad faith have the same agency, yet truth separates them. Bad faith is underpinned by lies, but good faith can handle, and it relies on, the truth. So, it’s good faith we commend to ourselves—taking the world as it is.

But good faith is hard work in that it compels us to trust, to find expressions in the midst of our fear that qualify courage, and to glory beyond ourselves toward a valour that cares, ever imperturbably, little for the result, focusing on the process: faith.

Faith Comes Into Its Own When There’s No Other Option

Faith is the only thing that works where there’s no choice; there’s no option presented. When we must trust, and if not, there’s no other way through, we mustn’t deny. There’s always a way out through myriad form of denial. But denial has refused to trust when it could so easily decide, otherwise, for faith.

When we’ve hit a brick wall, and there’s no way around, over, or through, there’s usually one option, alone: turn back and face the problem. Face the fear. Face the loss. Sure, there are tears or greater manifestations of fear. None of this can crush us, not ultimately.

Brick walls are actually good. They force us to own what we need to own. In these, God communicates through a deafening accord of reality; true circumstance. He gets through when he gets through—then, we’ll listen. Then, through Divine agency of faith, we can bust this fear.

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Faith is the fear buster. As we enlist trust, courage, and glorious valour we enjoy the fuller capacity of faith. We see the brick wall before us, and calmly turn back to face our problems. Remaining in the truth and struggling well are faith.

© 2012 S. J. Wickham.