Constant Conflict of Faith Versus Fear

“Early next morning, as they walked along the road, they saw the fig tree. It was dead all the way down to its roots. Peter remembered what had happened and said to Jesus, “Look Teacher, the fig tree you cursed has died!” Jesus answered them: “Remember this! If you have faith in God, you can say to this hill, ‘Get up and throw yourself in the sea.’ If you do not doubt in your heart, but believe that what you say will happen, it will be done for you, For this reason I tell you: When you pray and ask for something, believe that have received it, and everything will be given you.” (Mark 11:20-24)

In this quotation from Mark he is telling us to put all our faith in God. But so many times fear gets in the way and takes away from the love we should be putting in God. This is what I should like to speak on today — The Constant Conflict of Faith Versus Fear.

Too often we have put faith in God but not all our faith. We have been afraid that something might happen tomorrow and we might get hurt if we put all our faith in God today. When we do this, we really hurt God. It’s like saying to someone who loves you very much and who has put all his faith and hope in you: “I’ll have faith in you, but just to be sure that I won’t be hurt or get disappointed tomorrow — I won’t put all my love in you. I hope you don’t mind.”

Well, Father does mind and it does hurt him, but yet he has never given up on us. He has never lost his patience with us even though time and again we have disappointed Him and turned away from Him.

Surely after so long, it is now our turn to put our complete faith in Him — even though it may hurt us. After all, we began by God’s spirit. Do we now think we can finish by our own power? I would like to read a passage from “the Prophet” by Gibran that expresses the idea that faith won’t be an easy road but in the long run it will be much happier and much more rewarding.

“Where love beckons to you, follow him though his ways are hard and steep. And when he speaks to you believe in him, though his voice may shatter your dreams. For even as love crowns you, so shall he crucify you. Even as he is for your growth, so his is for your pruning. But if in your fear you would seek love’s peace and love’s pleasure then it is better for you that you pass out of love’s threshing floor into the seasonless world where you shall laugh, but not all of your laughter, and weep, but not all of your tears.”

At some time we must all have lost faith because we felt inferior. We must have said something like this: “I can’t talk to him because he’s something and I’m nothing. If I were something and he were nothing, or if he were something and I were something, then I could talk to him.”

When we say this we must consider who we are talking about. When we put ourselves down we are putting God down because he created us. He created us in order to feel joy; and what more could we want to be as long as we are children who are able to bring or capable of bringing joy to our Father? How can we feel inferior when our mission is so great?

All people want to feel needed, but many times we are asked to do things that are needed (like having faith in God and making him happy) but we don’t want to do it. Maybe it’s because we are so wrapped up in ourselves that we are unable to hear God’s word and have enough faith in Him to do it. Is this fair?

Another thing that can keep us from God is the fear of the unknown. In Hebrews 11: 1, 6, 7 it says: to have faith is to be sure of the things we hope for, to be certain of the things we cannot see. No man can please God without faith. For he who comes to God must have faith that God exists and rewards those who seek him. It was faith that made Noah hear God’s warnings about things in the future that he could not see. He obeyed God, and built an ark in which he and his family were saved.

God required this huge amount of faith from Noah so that he could work with him in world restoration. We who know the Principle will also have our faith tested so that we can show God how strong we are and how much responsibility he will be able to give us. Are we going to let him down and not be able to take any of the burden from his shoulders?-the burden of world restoration. We must remember that God is a God of love. He: will never leave his children or never ask them to do anything they are not capable of handling.

Jesus had to accomplish his mission alone-but he had faith. It was the Jews — those who were being told his great message — who rebelled and lost faith in God. For this reason Jesus couldn’t restore this world in his lifetime. Are we going to be like the Jews, and rebel and lose faith in God? If we have no faith we will fail in everything we try to do. We can’t just obey the truth when we hear it -we must believe it.

Nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God if we have Faith. So don’t be afraid!