Fear - The Enemy of Faith

“Faith must come first. After all, you cannot love something that you do not believe in.” — Dr. Christopher Kolker, Christian Medicine and Anxiety.

When you start to panic, reason takes a backseat. The heart beats too quickly to pray, the mind fills with what-ifs, and peace seems far away. In Christian Medicine and Anxiety, Dr. Christopher Kolker writes that this is not simply a psychological reaction but a spiritual disruption, in which the soul momentarily forgets who holds it.

He does not treat anxiety as a flaw in character but as a call to restoration. “Prayer, supplication, attending Mass, acts of devotion, and charity toward others,” he writes, “are not merely religious duties. They are lifelines.” These are the means by which the anxious heart is reattached to God’s peace.

Fear and the Fracture of Trust

Fear, Dr. Kolker explains, often begins with separation. It grows when we move away from our spiritual center, when we attempt to manage life apart from the One who sustains it. Thus, anxiety is rooted in orientation rather than emotion.

That is why Dr. Kolker insists that the path toward calm is not self-reliance but surrender. The anxious soul must return to a relationship. Prayer and trust are not strategies to control panic; they are the movements that release it. “The only way to sustain healing,” he writes, “is by rooting everything in our relationship with God.”

Faith as the Beginning of Healing

The author places faith first among the four pillars of Christian life. 

Faith, he writes, is the foundation upon which the others rest. It is not blind optimism but the conviction that God’s presence endures, even when calm does not.

To live by faith is to see fear differently. It is to recognize that even in trembling, God remains steady. Panic urges the mind toward control; faith pulls it back toward dependence. This shift is what Dr. Kolker calls the renewal of the mind. 

Renewal Through Surrender

Dr. Kolker is direct about the difficulty of change. “Changing our internal landscape,” he writes, “is no easy task.” Those who live with anxiety often find their thoughts returning to the same patterns of fear and tension. But just as harmful habits shape the brain toward panic, new patterns — prayer, gratitude, devotion, rest — can reshape it toward peace.

Surrender, then, becomes the daily medicine. Faith is not a static belief but a practiced rhythm: returning, again and again, to God’s presence in the middle of panic. Each prayer becomes a quiet rebellion against fear. Each act of trust builds a new path for peace to walk upon.

When Panic Meets Presence

Dr. Kolker never promises that faith will erase fear. Instead, it changes its meaning. When we carry our panic into prayer, something changes. The heart stops performing for calm and begins receiving it.

Faith transforms panic into prayer. It invites God into the moment we least feel His nearness, teaching the soul to stand still in His presence until it remembers: fear does not define us; relationship does.

Faith Over Fear

The Christian life, Dr. Kolker reminds us, is not about mastering emotion but about ordering it. When faith leads, fear finds its proper place. When trust grows, anxiety shrinks to its true size.

If panic has stolen your rest, start by reading Christian Medicine and Anxiety. Breathe. Pray. Hand over what you cannot hold. Let faith become your anchor. Let hope follow. Let love draw you outward.

Grab your copy now.