If you do a quick search in Google, it says that fear is a basic, universal human emotion triggered by a real, perceived, or imagined threat to a physical, emotional, or psychological well-being.
It’s main goal is to protect us from harm when a situation has been too unstable, too unpredictable and too unknowingly terrifying for our own mind to comprehend.
I have been personally an anxious and fearful person. I think it was brought about my early experiences as a child where I had multiple accidents.
Before those, I was basically a wild child with no sense of fear. Until I hurt myself.
Ever since it has been a trauma response to always scan the environment for perceived threat. I would even take it as I have grown into an adult who knows how to calculate risk, cautiously participate in activities which are a little dangerous for me.
But what are the kinds of fear people struggle with ?
There are a lot of reasons why people tend to fear things and situations but in my observations, these are the things I have noticed from being around different groups of people…
First and most common i would say is the fear of man.
This is the kind of fear where people tend to be conscious on what other people perceive and would say about them.
It usually stems from people-pleasing, abandonment, and rejection tendencies and starts in very small, harmful compromises as to not offend other people.
Essentially, it kind of equates to having an idol of social safety.
In 1 Samuel 15:3-24, the prophet Samuel calls out the rebellion of King Saul to “partially obey” the command of God and his subsequent rejection as king of Israel.
When he admitted to his shortcomings , he told that he only did it because he “feared the men and obeyed their voice”. In the end , he was disqualified by God to be King of Israel.
The fear of men is a subtle, seemingly harmless act but it costs us a lot.
Second, is the fear of circumstance.
This type of fear stems from the inability to control situations and their outcomes. People fear the fact that something might not turn out to be favorable or convenient for them.
In essence, the mind is craving for environmental safety and checks if the self is safe with a certain situation.
Third, and the most common is the fear of death.
I personally know people in my circle (including me) that fear death and sickness. The fear of an unknown concept scares more people than we know.
Since all humans are programmed to feel safe, we tend to be at peace when we know what lies ahead. But that’s not how life is and God doesn’t want us to be crippled with fear from the inevitable process of life.
Fear of lack is also one of the common fears of modern men. In this economy and in this day and age, the world has been quite noisy and busy compared to the previous decades.
For most people, it’s almost impossible to be content with just enough. Social media has put a lot of pressure into the lives of people , seeing what others have and comparing themselves to each other. It’s as if a never-ending cycle of searching for something to fill us can make us truly happy.
This can be in the form of lack of material safety, financial provision , and scarcity.
Even the Bible shows how Satan tried to deceive Jesus Christ during his fast with lack of food when he asked Him to turn the rocks into bread.
Essentially, the fear of lack points to how our flesh can interpret it as an unsafe situation.
But among all these fears, is the fear God would probably want us to have — the Fear of Him.
Out of all of the fears I mentioned, this type of fear does not allow us to worry, or be anxious but to be reverent and abiding to God.
On the contrary, it allows us to be in a state of rest and stillness, which other fears cannot offer. It is the beginning of Wisdom.
Basically, the fear of God is obedience to Him and His Word.
God ultimately wants us to be free from all fears that cripples us. But how?
When God wants to remove the fear of men, he introduces public pressure and disapproval.
Sounds counterintuitive, right? How does emabrrassment and rejection remove the very fear that a person can experience from people? By destroying their ego.
When we have nothing to prove to people, no status to maintain for ourselves, we don’t allow people to walk on us and dictate our worth and identity.
Meanwhile, if God wants to remove the fear of circumstance, he might start to mess up with our sense of control on things. Situations can get overhwelming as God will disrupt environments to show that your old systems and patterns will fail.
Why would he do that?
To prove that only in Him can we find true security. No amount of plans or goals can overpower the sovereignty of our Lord.
No wonder His command is for us to rest in HIs presence. With all the things we ought to do daily, we can never be perfectly excellent in all areas of our life. At some point, we will always fall short and not all people can handle loss and failure quite well.
God is inviting us to trust and rely on Him, and he will sustain, uphold, direct and correct us like a Father would.
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