The righteous person faces many troubles, but the Lord comes to the rescue each time. ~Psalms 34:19 (NLT)
Fear and Faith
Fear isn’t Proof that your Faith is Weak.
Have you ever been afraid, I mean, really afraid, and then felt guilty about it, like your fear was proof your faith wasn’t strong enough?
I have.
I’m in the middle of it right now, actually. It’s part of why it’s been quiet here for a while. Life got heavy in a way I didn’t see coming, and for a few weeks, writing had to wait.
Somewhere along the way, many of us started to think that trusting God means we’re not supposed to have fear, or that the fear is supposed to go away. We also might think that having real faith looks calm and confident. So when it isn’t—when your stomach drops and your mind won’t stop running different scenarios—it’s easy to think you’re failing at trusting Him.
Faith Doesn’t Wait for Fear to Leave
Throughout the Bible, we see examples of people showing us that faith isn’t the absence of fear but the choice to trust God in the midst of it.
David understood that well. He didn’t pretend he was fearless. I love that when he wrote about fear, he said: “when,” not “if” (Psalm 56:3, AMP). He knew fear was coming. But instead of letting it keep him from God, he used it to draw him closer to Him.
Esther’s story reminds us of something else.
She knew approaching the king without being summoned could cost her life (Esther 4:11). Before she stepped into that moment, Mordecai encouraged her to see that God may have placed her where she was “for such a time as this”(Esther 4:14). His words reminded her that her circumstances weren’t outside of God’s sovereign plan.
Esther also didn’t try to carry that burden alone. She asked others to fast with her before she went to the king.
Then she made one of the most courageous statements in Scripture:
“If I perish, I perish.” (Esther 4:16)
That isn’t the language of someone who is afraid. It’s the language of someone who had decided that trusting God was bigger than her fear and that it mattered far more than knowing how everything would turn out.
David trusted God while he was afraid.
Esther obeyed God while the outcome was uncertain.
Both remind us that courage doesn’t mean that we aren’t afraid. It’s choosing faith in the middle of it.
Fear and Trust Aren’t Opposites
We tend to treat fear and faith like a scale: the more of one, the less room there is for the other. If you’re scared, you must not really trust God. If you really trusted Him, you wouldn’t be scared.
But that’s not what trust actually is.
Trust was never a promise that you’d feel peaceful. It’s a decision about who you’re holding on to when you don’t feel peaceful. You can be shaking and still reaching for Him. Both things can be true in the same breath: I am afraid, and I trust God. Neither one cancels the other out.
Even the Faithful Get Scared
Scripture doesn’t hide this. The disciples were in a boat, caught in a storm, water pouring in, and they woke Jesus up convinced they were going to die (Mark 4:35–41). These were men who had left everything to follow Him, and yet, they were still terrified. Jesus didn’t admonish them for feeling afraid. He asked why they still doubted, after everything they’d seen, that He was more than enough for the storm.
That’s the tension right there. Fear showed up. Faith didn’t leave. And both were in the boat at the same time.
David knew this, too. He wrote, “When I am afraid, I will trust and rely on You” (Psalm 56:3, AMP). Notice what that verse doesn’t say. It doesn’t say “when I stop being afraid.” It says when I am afraid, present tense, right in the middle of it, this is what I’ll do. Trust wasn’t the reward for getting past the fear. Trust was the thing he did with the fear still sitting in his chest.
What Trusting God Can Look Like While You’re Still Scared
So if you’re in a season where the fear feels like it’s in the driver’s seat, here’s what trusting Him can actually look like:
Pray the honest prayer, not the polished one. God doesn’t need you to sound composed. “I’m scared, and I don’t know what’s happening. Please help me” is a complete prayer.
Don’t chase the worst case down every branch. Fear will have you thinking about a hundred endings over and over again. You don’t have to do that. You can notice the thought and choose not to finish the story.
Stand on what you know about God’s character, even when you don’t know the outcome. You may not know how this ends. You do know who He’s been to you before. Let that be enough to stand on today.
Just take the next step; don’t focus on how far there is to go. You don’t need the full plan. You just need to deal with what’s in front of you right now.
And trust isn’t a decision you make once and then coast on. It’s a choice you make every day, sometimes every hour — for as long as the fear sticks around. Some days that choice comes easy. Other days it’s harder.
You Don’t Have to Wait Until You’re Not Afraid
My ongoing prayer for the last few years has been: Lord, I want to trust You in ways I never have before. I didn’t know at the time that He would be stretching me so that I could do just that. It’s scary and humbling to truly know that the Lord hears me.
We don’t have to wait for the fear to leave to trust God. We can be scared and still trust Him, not because the fear isn’t real, but because He’s bigger than anything that’s making us scared.
If you’re in a season like this, too, it’s okay, because you’re not failing at faith. You’re living it, right in the middle of the mess. That’s what trusting God in the messy middle actually looks like.
Life is a faith journey. Walk boldly.
💜 Be honest about your fear instead of pretending it away.
💜 Be willing to pray the prayer that isn’t polished.
💜 Be patient with yourself — trust is a practice, not a finish line.
If you’re new here, welcome, and if you’ve been waiting on me to return, thank you for your patience. I stepped back for a few weeks because life asked more of me than I had to give, and writing had to wait its turn. But I’m back, still a little shaken, still being reminded every minute of every day what it means to trust God with my hands full and my heart uncertain. If that’s you too —if you’re in a season where the fear hasn’t lifted yet but you’re still showing up anyway—I’d love for you to stick around. This space is for the messy middle, not just the resolved lessons on the other side of it.
— Tami Zanele
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