Here's a thought I had about faith in the face of fear: Sometimes I know that fear strikes me and I am not even sure where it is coming from. I didn't ask for it...didn't invite it, and here it is like an enemy encamped in my valley of despair. Big, ugly intimidating fear that sometimes paralyzes me without lifting a bony finger. And that is just when "faith" comes to my aid. Now the Bible tells me that even a little bitty faith can move mountains (Matthew 17:20) so it's not the size of my faith that overcomes this crouching enemy but where I have placed it...and I have placed it in a HUGE GOD!
Imagine if someone owns a powerful and beautiful sports car and just suppose they return from a windy ride on a winding road, savoring such raw power, they then get down on their hands and knees to look underneath the vehicle and say, "Wow! Look at that clutch!" No, the clutch simply releases the power of this gorgeous machine. Faith is the clutch that releases the power of God in the midst of the "soon-to-be road-kill" that is my fear. So what does my faith do? It holds me fast to what I really believe when EVERYTHING around me is telling me that what I know to be truth is not real, and gently tells me that God is everything I need in Christ Jesus.