Faith over Fear

Faith, according to Hebrews 11:1 is “confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see” (NLT). And if you’re reading this and you’re a longtime Christian, or you grew up in the church, you’ve probably heard this definition before.

Or maybe you’ve picked up this book today, and you’ve walked away from the idea of the church and organized religion, but you’ve heard the word faith.

Or maybe you’ve picked up this book today, and you’ve never been to church and never known Jesus as anything more than a curse word or Jewish teacher or some guy Christians talk about all the time, but you’ve heard the word faith.

Regardless of where you come from or the ways in which you have or haven’t experienced God, the definition Hebrews gives is a great definition, especially when everything in our lives is going well.

When we’re healthy, when we’re successful, when we’re happy, and when our lives are free from struggle, pain, doubts, storms, or fear.

Fear comes into play when we anticipate or become aware of something dangerous that poses a threat to our well-being.¹ And in some ways, fear can be a really good thing. It’s the built-in survival mechanism that keeps us from entering potentially life-threatening situations, and it helps us escape from places our bodies and minds believe to be dangerous.

But for Christians, fear can also be detrimental to the ways we experience and manifest faith if we let it linger unaddressed. If you don’t profess to being a believer, fear can also be the thing holding you back from giving your life to Jesus.

If you’re struggling to grow in your faith, this book is for you.
If you’re struggling with doubts, this book is for you.
If you’re staring down the eye of a storm, this book is for you.
If you’re struggling with fear, this book is for you.

Friends, we were made for more than just wrestling and striving and struggling.
We were made for hope and connection and faith.

And I want to help you find it. Let’s walk in faith over fear, together.


Chapter 1
Walking in Faith over Fear

You need to shut down the church! I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. COVID was in full swing, and everything from governmental buildings and services to the local gym were closing. Now, concern was growing that any gathering could increase the spread of this unknown virus that was so deadly that the entire country of Italy was shut down with stay-at-home orders and travel lockdowns.

In the beginning of the pandemic, we wanted to make sure we helped people navigate this phenomenon. After gathering as much information as possible, we closed the church buildings but kept church going online. Over the course of the next several weeks, I did a deep dive into the science behind all these closures and soon realized it was fear, not scientific or statistical data, which was driving these closures.

After taking time to meet with our leadership teams and pray through what we were about to do, we knew there was only one way to respond to rampant fear in our community. It was time to live in faith over fear.

We opened Skyline Church to thousands of people who were so hungry for a sense of normalcy in their lives. Over the course of the next several weeks, we saw Skyline Church reach attendance numbers never experienced in the rich history of the church. We experienced more decisions for Christ, more baptisms, more people becoming members than ever before. We were witnessing a revival right in front of our eyes.

When we decided to walk in faith over fear, everything changed.

Numbers 13–14

Have you ever heard the expression about having nothing to fear but fear itself and wondered where it came from while thinking, “What kind of person isn’t afraid of sharks?” Or spiders. Or heights. Or whatever it is that you’re deathly afraid of.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (affectionately known as FDR), the thirty-second president of the United States, used the phrase (that he paraphrased from Henry David Thoreau, an American transcendentalist writer) in his presidential inauguration speech some eight decades ago, right smack-dab in the middle of one of the largest and most devastating economic downturns in modern history: the Great Depression.¹

Talk about having something to fear. Stock market crash. Massive unemployment.