False Fear – Sunday, March 05, 1944
The war of nerves, so-called, is a new name for an old stratagem—the stratagem of deliberately bringing about a state of fear in the lives of men. It has long been known that if you can strike fear into the heart of a man you have already gone far toward destroying his effectiveness. Fear is, no doubt, a “secret weapon” of Satan himself—and of many who have sought to emulate him—who would like others to be paralyzed by fear so that they may accomplish their own purposes.
Of course, there are those who will remind us that fear is not always paralyzing—that sometimes in great fear a man will rise to feats of physical performance which he could not otherwise accomplish—and this may be true as to an act of emergency— but the strength of fear is spent quickly—and is not to be compared with the strength that comes with quiet courage long sustained. Fear is the enemy of faith; it is the companion of darkness and despair. It will not travel with hope; it sets the stage for failure. It is a killer, a destroyer of men. The knife of the surgeon cannot reach its malignant growth. It is elusive, intangible, untouchable—a thing of mind and of the spirit. And, as all of its victims have discovered in anguish, peace will not dwell with fear. To many these are fearful days. We live in fear of news we hope will never come—and when it doesn’t come, we live in fear of no news. A generation racked with fears, a generation that has had reason to have its fears multiplied and intensified, would do well to remind itself that a man cannot be divested of his fears, merely by commanding them to depart. False fear is crowded out only by being supplanted with something with which it is incompatible.
A growing faith would inevitably mean a diminishing fear. The two cannot occupy the same space at the same time. Fear cannot long sustain itself where there is a conviction of the reality of God, and of the ultimate accomplishment of his purposes. False fear cannot long remain in the life of a man who has faith in his own everlasting continuance, and in all of the other realities of the universe—including an eventual justice, whereby, in the Lord’s own time, wrongs will be righted, and truth will prevail—which day, men, even though they die, shall yet live to see. “And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full … and they awake him, and say unto him, Master, carest thou not that we perish? … And he said unto them, why are ye so fearful? How is it that ye have no faith?” (Mark 4:37-40) Unto a fearful generation there come again these quieting words: “Be still, and know that I am God.” (Psalm 46:10)
By Richard L. Evans, spoken from the Tabernacle, Temple Square, Salt Lake City, Sunday, March 5, 1944, over Radio Station KSL and the nationwide Columbia Broadcasting System. Copyright – 1944.
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March 05, 1944
Broadcast Number 0,759