Fear Not!

I've been thinking about fear a lot. There are so many things to fear! But then I realized that fear is frankly stupid. Below is a raw and unedited conversation between and my dear friend Emily Kelly on our thoughts about fear, and a few other thoughts I've had since then.

Emily: Okay, so it was awesome because two nights ago, my mom and I and Celeste and her son Devin were talking, and Celeste and Devin are super spiritual! It was amazing! And Devin would get choked up and it was so awesome! So he was talking about fear. And he was talking about not having fear. And that was so cool! I'll have to tell you more about it when I get home. Then we started talking about the talk by Elder Holland called Tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among You. And he talked about how Moses had an incredible spiritual experience, and then the devil came and just tried so hard to make him doubt what he had JUST heard. Sly. So anyways, Elder Holland was saying that after we have spiritual experiences we can get attacked. So it was just so interesting. It's scary, but when and after you do something cool, or experience something amazing, the adversary (and it's not the adversary every time I think) but he knows that something will really help us, and he tries to freak us out into not going it! Yes fear can be a good thing, but it can be mean! What's the point of being afraid of something that could happen that hasn't even happened? We don't know what's going to happen! So why choose fear and feel miserable, if the outcome could be good! The outcome could be as good as could be bad, so why should we choose to feel afraid more than confident? And of course it's not like we're afraid all of the time, but there definitely are times. There is a saying that my dad told me years ago, it goes like this. "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it". 

Heavenly Father always has our back, and we can trust him perfectly because we know he will do the best for us. When we follow him, we couldn't have made a better choice. Everything is worth it. Every hard, good thing is worth it. Ohhh but it can be hard to do hard things!

2nd Nephi 2:27. Choosing the harder right (like President Thomas S. Monson's talk was about) is always worth it. The outcome is sooooo much better! Seriously!!!! But choosing the easier wrong, is never worth it in the end. It's just not true happiness. There's happiness and there's joy. The easier wrong leads to captivity. What we think is liberty on Earth, is captivity in reality. And what we sometimes think is captivity on Earth (The Commandments, living the Gospel, Following Jesus Christ is truly liberty. Isn't that so cool??? So yes, it is always, always worth it. 

Savannah: Ahh! How did you know I was struggling so much with that?! What you said about spiritual experiences and Moses and being attacked after spiritual experiences. Love that. Have I ever told you about the pendulum of pain? Basically right after you're happy, you're going to be sad. You can't have happiness without sadness, nor sadness without happiness! And you can't grow spiritually unless you have opposition! I absolutely adore what you said about fear. There is no need to fear with God. When God tells us not to fear, it's a commandment. Ahhhhhh!! So good. There is no need to fear opposition. Romans 8:31 says "if God be for us, who can be against us?". 

That was so powerful. About following Heavenly Father and that being the correct choice. Not only is that the best choice, it's the only choice! Honestly. Following Satan and his path ends. It always does. But God is eternal! Forever and ever. In this instance, we can look at the differences between "eternal" and "immortal". Immortal is never dying, always existing. However, eternal is never dying, always living, in joy with God. The choice to follow God is not an eternal choice, it is an immortal choice of awesomeness. 

SPIRITUAL TRUTH BOMB. Holy heck. Love love love love love. If choosing the right was always easy, we would always do it! It's so simple yet so profound. In choosing the right, we choose to manifest our belief and love for God. Romans 1:16. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ for it is the power of God unto salvation... So so so good. Choosing the right brings salvation. That's why the atonement is so good. So necessary in every day life. Undeniably God is good. In Romans 3:23-24 (I'm studying in Romans right now if you can't tell) it says:

23. For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

24. Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ.

Choosing the right is so hard. Especially if we put filters on our agency. Sometimes I think Satan controls some of our agency and we don't even know it. But! That's why we have the atonement. I KNOW the atonement shakes us. God is good. 

(Yes we sent that many words back and forth to each other. It's a very interesting topic). 

I've had a couple of epiphanies on fear since yesterday. One of them is this. Fear is a path back to God. All bad things (mistakes, hardships, sins) should lead us to our knees in prayer to our Heavenly Father. Sometimes we need our fear to guide us to Heavenly Father and rely on his help to conquer our fear and to live life despite of it. 

Romans 8:28 was another epiphany. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. If we love God, we have no need to fear, for all good things will work together for our good. 

In the hymn As Zion's Youth in Latter Days, the third verse says "thru test and trial we'll have our fears

But we will not despair. 

We're here to serve a righteous cause;

Truth gives us strength to dare.

We'll love, and learn, and overcome;

We'll sing a joyful song, 

As Zion's youth in latter days,

Triumphant, pure, and strong".

Fear makes us strong! And when we conquer it, we are triumphant. 

To end my post, I want you to read these scriptures. Romans 8: 35, 37-39.

35. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

37. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.

38. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,

39. Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Savannah