Living by Faith not Fear

I gave a talk in church a while ago and the assigned topic was "Living by Faith not by Fear," the topic was taken from a talk given by newly called apostle Elder Cook. I hope to show that some of my beliefs as a mormon coincide with belief others have who are not of my faith, especially concerning our Savior Jesus Christ. When I was first assigned the topic, I was intrigued that these two words were combined as a topic. I hadn't thought through exactly why faith and fear were opposites. Reading again the talk given by Elder Cook was helpful and I also decided to examine the ideas one at a time. Fear After reading the talk the first thing I did was make a list of fears, it won't be exhaustive of course and any additional fears you would like to mention would be appreciated in the comments. You can fear: Rejection Embarrassment Not reaching your potential/failure Death, of yourself or a loved one Injury or disease Hell Murderers Rapists No one will read or like your blog Your house will fall down if your magazines aren't straight on the coffee table Stepping on a crack and breaking your mother's back Police (I've found this to be more common in law breakers) Heights Salmonella/E. coli Snakes, Spiders, Sharks, Lions, Tigers, Bears Bees - this was a big one for me due to an experience when I was camping at four years old. I came out of a building and there was a bee flying around in front of me, it looked to me like it was trying to sting me so I tried to swat at it but I couldn't hit it. I couldn't fight so I tried to run and as soon as I thought I was safe, I got a sting right on the back of my neck. For a long time after that I thought there was no way to defend against a bee attack. At least with a cougar you can fight back so for me it was the feeling of being helpless that I was afraid of. Everyone has their own reasons to fear something. Some specific fears are particular to callings in the church: Priesthood leaders can fear that no one fulfills their assignments, like hometeaching. Activity planners can fear that no one will come to their activities Some fears are specific to sharing the gospel: Friends could take religion as just something to disagree about Maybe you are appearing to act "holier than thou" You could fear that your testimony is insufficient or hypocritical When I finished this list, one theme that stood out to me was that fears are preventative motivational influences. Some fears motivate you not to do bad things, which is good. For instance, a fear of injury or disease can motivate you to wear your seatbelt or put on sunblock, wash your hands and keep things clean so you don't have cockroaches. A fear of Hell can make us keep the commandments. However, many fears prevent us from doing things that we would enjoy or that would benefit ourselves or others. A over perceptive fear of embarrassment can lead us to not talk to that cute girl from class, or not take up dancing, singing, or woodcarving which we otherwise might have enjoyed. A fear of not reaching our potential could mean that we mask talents so no one knows we have them. We try to trick ourselves into thinking that we never had the potential in the first place. Faith In the same way that fear motivates us not to do something, faith motivates us to do something. I made a similar list of things that we could have faith in: Sun coming up every day Police Brakes, Seat belts, Climbing ropes, helmets Municipal utilities Military protection Laws - civil, physical, spiritual Our own abilities to learn, forgive, study ---> pass, Other people's abilities Medicine/Doctors Teammate Many of the things we have faith in, we don't even think about. Faith can be a motivating factor that counteracts fear. A fear of heights can be assuaged by having faith in your equipment. A fear of a disastrous car accident can be overcome by faith in traffic laws and in the driver's ability to drive. Faith can motivate us to do the same things that fear would do. Faith in God and fear of hell will motivate a person to do similar things such as keep the commandments. One important point that I have felt strongly as I have studied this topic is that it is better to do something because of faith rather than due to a fear. Jesus Christ Up to this point in the blog, I have said much that non-Christians can take and use. Faith doesn't have to be limited to a definition of religion. However, I have also learned that the greatest motivating influence we can have in this life is a faith in Jesus Christ and His atonement. I learned this long ago when my dad told me that one of the general authorities in the church had said that the first principle of the gospel was not faith. I was confused because Joseph Smith wrote some Articles of Faith and the fourth one says "We believe the first principles and ordinances of the gospel are: first, Faith..." I had the articles memorized and so I knew this part. That day however, the general authority had taught us that the important part of the principle of the gospel comes where I wrote those three dots. "first, Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ." Faith is useless as far as salvation goes unless it is in Jesus Christ.