“Faith Over Fear” is a popular phrase these days. You see it anywhere from posts and hashtags to T-shirts and hoodies. A quick Google search of the term brings up several websites posing the question: what does faith over fear mean? It seems fairly obvious: you allow your faith to be greater than your fear. Easier said (or written) than done. The Bible is full of examples of people who lived out this faith over fear mentality, and over the next week we will be looking at three of them. We’ll start with a man called Abram.
Abram’s life was marked by faithfulness. In fact, Genesis 15:6 tells us that God counted Abram righteous because of his faith. Abram’s story is a fascinating one and you may find you have more in common with Father Abraham than you first thought. Abram came from a family tradition of paganism. His father, Terah, was a pagan who did not know or worship Yahweh.
“Joshua said to the people, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: Long ago your ancestors, including Terah, the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the Euphrates River, and they worshiped other gods.’” (Joshua 24:2)
So when the Lord spoke to Abram and told him to go the land He would show him, this was a monumental act of faith for Abram to listen and obey. He had just heard from a God he had never heard of before, but I bet it’s the first time he’d heard a god speak.
“The Lord had said to Abram, ‘Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you. I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt. All the families on earth will be blessed through you.’ So Abram departed as the Lord had instructed….” (Genesis 12:1-4a)
So Abram left behind his old ways and went in faith and obedience. If you are a follower of Christ then at some point you heard a calling from the Lord on your life to leave your life of sin, to leave your old ways and walk with Him. Abram heard the same calling and obeyed. He must have felt some level of fear when leaving his home and going to some distant land. In fact when he got to the land there was a famine so Abram took his family down to Egypt.
“At that time a severe famine struck the land of Canaan, forcing Abram to go down to Egypt, where he lived as a foreigner.” (Genesis 12:10)
In this instance Abram acted on his fear and it didn’t work out well. He started his time in Egypt with a lie and ended up getting thrown out of Egypt. But he goes from there back to the land God had shown him. Along the journey, Abram and his nephew Lot separate, which leads to Lot and his family being taken captive. Abram acts in faith over fear yet again when he leads an attack during the night with 318 men against an army and saves his nephew and his entire family. There were plenty of times in Abram’s life when he could have allowed his fear to overrule his faith, but more often than not, he chose his faith in the Lord over his fear and we can too.
May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.