Sabbath Devotional :: Fear, Faith, and Focus

fear faith - Mormon Women for Ethical Government — .

I have been thinking a lot about fear.

This is partly because I have been noticing a lot of fear around me. I see it in news headlines and election strategies. I see it in my Facebook feed and on campaign flyers in my mailbox.

But the truth is that fear is not just something I have been observing in other people. I have been thinking a lot about fear because I have been feeling a lot of fear myself.

I fear big things, like government corruption and global pandemics. I fear not-so-big things, like my children getting their drivers’ licenses. I feel fear when my children are sick or hurt. I feel fear when I hear stories from my daughter about the harrowing world of junior high school. I fear that I am not doing enough as a citizen, as a mother, as a disciple.

I have a lot of fears.

I have chosen to believe what Paul declared when he wrote that “God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:7). I recite this scripture in my mind daily. I have taught it to my children. We talk about it frequently. I wholeheartedly believe that “God hath not given [me] the spirit of fear.” I embrace this as an essential and eternal truth.

Yet I still feel fear.

Sometimes the fear inside of me starts to feel overwhelming. It was during one of those moments recently that I cried out to the Lord in prayer. I told him that I know the fear doesn’t come from him. I told him that I don’t want to fear. I want my faith to overcome the fear.

After my prayer I felt prompted to reach for my scriptures. I opened to 2 Nephi 25, and these words jumped out at me:

And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins (2 Nephi 25:26).

I continued to skim through the surrounding pages, and verse after verse spoke to me, testifying of Jesus Christ. The Spirit whispered to me that there was something important here for me. It’s all about Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ needs to be your focus. Jesus Christ is the answer.

This was not exactly a startling revelation. I mean, isn’t that what I’ve believed my entire life — that Jesus is the answer? I have spent much of my life diligently trying to focus on him. My faith has never been a casual thing. The gospel of Jesus Christ is at the center of what I believe and who I am — isn’t it?

But the Spirit continued to whisper that there was something here for me to learn. There is more to learn about Jesus. There is more for me to understand.

So this has become a quest of sorts for me in my gospel study, in my prayers, in my thoughts, in my observations of the world around me. What more do I need to learn and understand about Jesus Christ? How can I know him better? How can this help me overcome my fears?

I don’t have all of the answers yet. But I am learning.

One of the most powerful things I have learned recently is that if I want to really know Jesus, I need to focus more on who he is and what he did than on how I measure up as a disciple. My sincere desires to do good can result in me becoming too focused on my own efforts. In other words, I have learned that it is easy for me to be so focused on being good and doing good that I can lose sight of the goodness of God.

I can get so caught up in all the good things I want to be doing that those things can become the center of my focus instead of Christ being the center.

The answer is not that I should do less good, or that I should stop trying to improve myself. It’s a matter of where my focus is. My focus needs to be less on myself and more on Jesus. Less focus on who I am, and more focus on who he is. Less focus on what I am doing, and more focus on what he has done. Less focus on how I fall short or how others fall short, and more focus on why he is enough.

As I have examined my own fears, I have realized that many of them boil down to a fear of not being enough. We can never do enough to save ourselves or save anyone else. But Jesus is enough. He has already done enough to save us all. With him, we are always enough.

The scriptures teach us that “perfect love casteth out fear” (1 John 4:18, Moroni 8:16). If I want to know perfect love, I need to know Jesus Christ. As I focus more on him and less on myself, I will come to know him better. I will come to better understand his perfect love. I will come closer to being filled with that love.

In the meantime, I continue to feel fear. Even with all my efforts, I anticipate that in this mortal life I will never eliminate all my fears. But I am also learning that fear can serve a useful purpose, if I let it. The fear can remind me to turn toward Jesus. To remember him. To follow him. To seek him. When the fear comes, I can choose to focus on the fear, or I can choose to focus on him. I can focus on his goodness and mercy. I can focus on his amazing grace. I can focus on what he has done, what battles he has already won. I can focus on his perfect love — the love that casts out fear.