The answer is not doubt. The scene in Mark 4:35-41 fascinates me: The disciples are caught in a storm and Jesus calms it. The disciples, including the sturdy fishermen that Jesus had called, were afraid of the storm, but when Jesus calmed the storm, it was then they really were terrified. They were terrified of his power over the wind and the waves. It shows the disciples as real people.

They didn’t know how to take Jesus. “Who is this?” they asked. “Even the wind and the waves obey him!” Before we deal with that question the disciples asked, we need to deal with the question Jesus asked them, “Why are you so afraid?” That is a question Jesus could ask of you. “Why are you so afraid?” Fear is at the heart of most of the problems we have. The opposite of faith is not doubt. The opposite of faith is fear.

Think about it for a moment and try to tell me any problem in the human heart is not based in fear. At the heart of bigotry and every other negative emotion is fear, fear of people who are not the same as we are, fear about our own adequacy and self-worth, fear about our ability to cope with life, fear concerning the future and the areas of life over which we have no control.

At the heart of worry, resentment, hatred, guilt and almost every negative emotion — emotions that eat at our well-being and peace of mind — is fear. And so often our fears are out of proportion to reality.

We have a tendency to turn molehills into mountains primarily because of fear. Most of the problems we have are caused by fear. It may be the fear that someone’s going to take advantage of us, it may be fear of failure, it may be fear of looking foolish, fear that we won’t fit in, fear that we will be abandoned. Few people aren’t driven by some fear or another.

Jesus says to us, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” The way to conquer fear is through faith. Faith is the only true antidote I know of for fear. Maybe that’s what Jesus meant when he said, “Unless you become like a little child you shall never enter the kingdom of God.” If we have that kind of trust to turn it all over to our Father God, most of the things that keep us up at night would simply disappear.

Fear is the biggest problem in our lives. The best way to conquer fear is with faith, but not just faith in anybody or anything. The only kind of faith that really matters is faith in Jesus Christ.

“Why are you so afraid?” Nothing can stop the person whose faith is the Lord.

REV. JOHN MOXLEY can be reached at Jmoxley1@juno.com.