It is amazing what faith can do for a person.
If I have someone with me who I trust can help and will stick it out with me, I can cope with all sorts of fears and dangers. It’s no co-incidence that psychologists trace our anxiety or other mental disorders back to our relationship with our parents. If we are confident that we are loved by our parents, if we grew up knowing they were always there for us and we could always rely on them, then external fears or dangers didn’t trouble us as much. We had faith that we could always fall back on mum and dad.
When the disciples are filled with fear because they are about to drown in Luke 8, Jesus links that fear to a lack of faith. It’s not that there is anything wrong with being afraid, its an important mechanism to motivate us to get to safety, to fight or flight.
But if we trust in Christ, if we have faith in him, then all the external fears of life are put into perspective. We know that whether we are rich or poor, popular or friendless, in safety or danger, in life or even death – nothing can take God’s love in Christ Jesus away from us.