Growing up in the church I was taught that faith and fear cannot coexist.  “Fear and faith cannot coexist in our hearts at the same time,” said Elder Neil L. Andersen (“You know Enough” Oct. Conference 2008). As a result of this teaching, I was ashamed when I felt fear.  I worried that if I felt fear it must mean that I didn’t have enough faith.  I worked hard to dismiss my fears, forcing myself to do lots of scary things.  I jumped off of 40-foot cliffs at Lake Powell, gave a talk in front of thousands of people and played the piano in front of members of the quorum of the twelve apostles.

As an adult, dismissing my fears has become more difficult.  Perhaps it’s easier to have faith when you’re a child because you haven’t yet seen a lot of bad things happen.  You are still in that adolescent stage of “I’m invincible—bad things can’t happen to me.”

As we grow older, we experience lots of scary things–family members getting hit by a car, dying of cancer, leaving the church.  It’s a lot harder to have the faith of a child when you have personally experienced life’s tragedies.  The realization becomes, “I am not invincible.  Bad things can happen to me.”

When we have genuine reason to fear, such as when a loved one faces a surgery that they may or may not survive, does that mean we lack faith?  Does that mean we are unfaithful?  Should I be ashamed because in such a situation I’m scared?  I still have a testimony.  I believe God is in charge and knows what He’s doing.  However, along with the faith that has sustained me since I was a child, I now recognize some fear.

In an effort to reconcile the faith vs. fear dichotomy I have learned some principles that have helped me feel worthy despite my fears.

Faith on a Continuum

I agree with Boyd K. Packer who said, “faith is the opposite of fear.”  I see faith at one end of a continuum and fear at the other, and I believe that depending on the circumstance we move along that continuum.  Sometimes we are closer to the fear end of the continuum and sometimes we are closer to the faith end of the continuum.  One philosopher said, regarding faith and fear that “one gives way to the other.”

I believe we can move closer to the faith end of the continuum when we ask ourselves two questions,

-what do I fear and

-whom do I fear?

If I fear speaking in front of a crowd, or if I fear playing the piano in public, perhaps the things I fear are the judgments of men.  I’m afraid they will ridicule my performance or disagree with what I say.  If I fear bearing my testimony or posting an inspirational quote online, once again, I probably fear the judgments of men.

We can move closer to the faith end of the continuum, chasing the fear from our hearts, if we choose to be more concerned about the judgments of God than the judgments of men.  God is generally more merciful than man anyway.  He knows when we are giving our best effort, and He is extremely compassionate when we make mistakes.  God’s judgments are right on-target whereas men’s judgments may be influenced by any number of prejudices.

When we disobey a commandment, more often than not, it is because we fear the judgments of men more than we trust the judgments of God.  We may fear disappointing someone we care about, or we fear they will “un-friend” us and therefore we end up disappointing God.  We can move closer to faith when we choose to care about God’s judgments more than man’s.

Faith in Ourselves

Moving towards faith becomes more challenging when, even though we trust God, we fear what God has in store for us.  We may have faith that God is in charge, and that he loves us and he wants the best for us.  However, we fear that the challenges he puts in our path will be too great for us to endure.

Consider families who have lost their mother, leaving a houseful of children motherless.  Consider an athlete who endures an accident, leaving him unable to perform, or even walk.  In such instances we might fear that we can’t cope with such extreme challenges.  We may fear that God expects more of us than we have the capacity to endure.

However, we demonstrate faith in God through our continued obedience, refusing to curse God as Job’s wife encouraged him to do (Job 2:9).  Our faith in our own ability to endure extreme trials grows when we rely on God to help us through.

The Savior, who experienced the greatest trial in the history of mankind, may have feared His abilities to complete the atonement, yet He trusted God’s plan (Luke 22:42). He had faith that His Father knew what He was doing.  With the help of the angel who was sent to bear Him up, Christ completed the most difficult task ever known (Luke 22:43).

Fear as a Part of Faith

One of my favorite images of faith comes from an Indiana Jones movie when Harrison Ford is standing at the edge of a cliff and he has to step off the cliff into what looks like an endless chasm below.  He has faith that there will be a path in front of him, one he can’t see at the moment, but one that will appear if he exercises faith.  Nevertheless, he doesn’t run out across the chasm with the certain knowledge that he won’t die.  He hesitates.  There is a chance he might be wrong.  His fear is manifest.  Maybe he’s 90% certain the path exists.  Maybe he’s 99% certain the path exists, but there’s always that nagging fear that he could be wrong.

This doesn’t mean he doesn’t have faith.  It means he doesn’t have knowledge.  He has moved far enough away from the fear end of the continuum that he is willing to step into the abyss, even though fear is still on the continuum.  Unless we have perfect knowledge we will all experience a little bit of fear even when we exercise faith.  There are some things about which we can gain a perfect knowledge, but lacking a perfect knowledge we must exercise faith, which comes with a percentage of fear.  If fear weren’t part of faith it would be called knowledge.

JeaNette Goates Smith is the author of four books on family relationships that can be accessed at www.smithfamilytherapy.org.  She and her husband, Bret, learned to exercise extraordinary faith while serving as mission leaders in the Dominican Republic from 2017 to 2020.