Fighting Fear with Faith

The Lord commands us to “fear not.” We can be courageous by increasing our faith and taking four key steps.

Have you ever missed an opportunity to do something good because you were afraid? President Kevin J Worthen addresses the topic of fear in his BYU devotional “‘Fear Not:’ Four Keys to Conquer Fear.”

He points out that in the scriptures, the Lord commands his disciples multiple times to “fear not.” But exactly how can we set aside our fears and be courageous, particularly with the increasing number of natural disasters, terrorist attacks, and other calamities occurring around the world? President Worthen offers four essential steps for overcoming fear.

1. Understand what fear means.

Fears fall into three main categories: rational fear of things that can hurt us, righteous fear of the Lord, and irrational fear of the unknown. The first two types are healthy and necessary, but the irrational fear of what we don’t know is a tool of the adversary that cripples us and saps our energy. We can fight this tactic with faith. “If we want to decrease the amount of fear in our lives, we need to increase the amount of faith in our lives,” declares President Worthen.

2. Serve others more.

Because “irrational fear causes us to focus on ourselves,” as President Worthen points out, we can work to overcome irrational fear by focusing on and helping others.

3. Understand that we decide whether to be fearful.

In the words of Elder Neal A. Maxwell, “Faith is not only a feeling; it is a decision.” We cannot passively hope for more faith and less fear; we must recognize that we have a choice and choose faith over fear.

4. Remember the choice we already made.

All of us chose faith over fear when we decided to follow Heavenly Father’s plan during the premortal life. We can continue to choose faith and reject fear, and those choices will lead us to greater joy in this life and the next.

To learn more about how we can conquer fear—and what Sister Sheri Dew discovered after fear stopped her from trying out for the BYU women’s basketball team—listen to President Kevin J Worthen’s entire speech: “‘Fear Not:’ Four Keys to Conquer Fear.”

Source: BYU Speeches

—Kayla Echols, Mormon Insights

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Find more insights

Read or listen to President Dieter F. Uchtdorf’s insights on doubt and faith in his talk “Come, Join with Us.”

To learn what Elder David A. Bednar has to say about fearing the Lord versus fearing man, check out “Therefore They Hushed Their Fears.”