On Sunday Team GB made history by winning two Winter Olympic titles on one day: Charlotte Bankes and Huw Nightingale won the snowboard cross mixed team event, then Tabby Stoecker and Matt Weston won the skeleton mixed team event.
Afterwards, the ecstatic Tabby Stoecker’s mother commented, “I’ve always taught her that if you have fear, you replace it with faith. Faith and fear don’t co-exist.”
That’s an interesting philosophy.
Fear is a survival instinct that puts the brain in high alert to keep us safe. Small children can be unsafe if they are fearless. But inappropriate fear is inhibiting.
In the Bible, faith and fear are definitely linked. Jesus’ disciples were afraid during a storm on the lake. He said, “Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?” (Matthew 8:26).
There is such a thing as godly fear. Throughout the Bible people are told to ‘fear God’, and to obey Him. For example, ‘Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man’ (Ecclesiastes 12:13).
Noah is a classic example of this. ‘By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith’ (Hebrews 11:7). Noah believed when God warned him about the imminent flood. In faith he obeyed God and was saved.
This fear of God is more than just respect or reverence, because the flood was a fearsome punishment on Noah’s world.
An apostle wrote, ‘We know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.” It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God’ (Hebrews 10:30-31).
And Christian believers in Rome were urged to let fear motivate them to be faithful. ‘They [the Jews] were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith. So do not become proud, but fear’ (Romans 11:20).
Faith can be misplaced. They said the Titanic was unsinkable; they thought the Chernobyl power plant was safe. But faith in God is never misplaced. And those who truly and willingly obey Him do, indeed, have nothing to fear. The prize from God – eternal life – is incomparably more precious than any Olympic accolade.
Anna Hart
Questions, comments? Please e-mail editor@gladtidingsmagazine.org
