Within the English language, the Christan faith, and in our culture fear is a complex and multifaceted concept. Fear is necessary and often a good aspect of healthy human emotional life. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines fear as “an unpleasant often strong emotion caused by anticipation or awareness of danger.” When a person is in danger their mind and emotions zero in on that danger and allow you to focus on returning to safety. A person who does not feel fear lacks the ability to evaluate and avoid dangers that all people experience.
And yet fears can become divided from reality and people can be overwhelmed by fear of things that are not real dangers, past dangers or experiences, or fixate on things that cannot be avoided. These fears can become debilitating and stop a person from living the life that God intended for humanity, living in truth, in relationship, in love, in trust, in hospitality and charity of those around us. In the bible there are repeated passages in which the people of God are told to not be afraid, or when Paul instructions Christians to “not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”
At the same time, in the Scriptures the people of God are instructed towards the fear of God. The use of the word fear here refers to an overwhelming reverence and recognition of the power of God. Proverbs 10:9 reads “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is insight.” There is a link here to the fundamental monotheistic aspect of the Judeo-Christan faith, “Hear O Israel. The LORD is our God, the LORD alone.” Deut 6:4) “I am the LORD your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other Gods before me.” Just as other things in creation are good, and yet it is imperative that we not worship them and pursue them over their Creator, the complete and ultimate good, other things in creation are powerful and dangerous. But any fear that we experience of these cannot eclipse our view of the reality of the God who is our saviour, who brought us out of slavery and into freedom. The emotion of fear itself is a natural part of how God created the human mind and emotions, these fears can eclipse our hearts and minds, making us blind to reality and keeping us from the freedom and whole living that God intends for all people.
The Impact of Fear
Current theories of emotion, including basic emotions like fear, describe emotions as existing not only in the mind, but in “three different, but closely interrelated levels: the mental or psychological level, the (neuro)physiological level, and the behavioral level.” The feeling of fear affects people as psychological thoughts and feelings, but also as physical sensation; physical pain, changes to posture, tightened and strained muscles, gastrointestinal issues, sometimes issues with the vision. The body has been alerted to a possible danger and is preparing itself to deal with it. There are also behavioural effects, automatic responses to the feeling of fear, often called fight-or-flight responses. Beyond rational cognition, fear and other strong and basic emotions launch a person into a behavioural pattern to resolve the danger.
These responses are brought on by both imminent physical danger, and by deeper long term emotional dangers, whether these dangers are real or only perceived. If a person has a deep rooted fear of not being loved, not being worthy, or being abandoned, they can trigger a similar fear response in a person. In this case it may be harder to identify exactly what caused the fear response and there isn’t a clear way to resolve the issue. Without a clear and easy way to resolve the danger these fears tend to grow and turn into regular negative behavioural patterns.
These patterns, fueled by fear, keep us from living in the truth, love, and freedom that God has intended for us, wholeness in relationship with ourselves and with others. Reimer describes his own journey through overcoming his fear of not being loved. It stopped him from living in right relationship with his wife, with those he works with, and with the members of his congregation that he had been called to serve. Any disagreement launched him into a protective behavioural pattern, making him unable to listen to the needs of those he needed to be relating to.
Identifying your Fears
A person can’t solve a problem that they don’t realize that they have. Identifying your fears is deeply complex and emotional work. The work of breaking the automatic patterns caused by a deeply held fear is made doubly difficult by the fact that those patterns are in place so that you won’t think about the thing that causes them. Revealing these things takes real emotional work and commitment, honest introspection, the fellowship of a trusted friend, spiritual leader, or therapist, and a great deal of prayer and trust in God.
Because fear produces a reaction in the mind, body, and behaviour, the first step is often recognizing these reactions as symptoms of fear, allowing yourself to pass from a moment of pain, irritability, reactiveness, or defensiveness, into a moment of prayerful curiosity. The first step is to notice and acknowledge the feeling you are experiencing, and then to ask yourself where it came from. What about the situation that you are in is making you feel afraid or unsafe. Reimer’s examples of this tracking are that he would find himself experiencing anxiety in his body physically, and would ruminate and rehearse conversations he anticipates happening. He used, and invites his readers to use, this as a cue to look inward, and to look to God, recognizing that a fear has been triggers, and using that fear as an opportunity to reaffirm his worth in Christ, saying to himself ; “I will go and listen and respond without defensiveness; I will own whatever I can, because surely God loves me. The issue of my value was settled at the cross.”
Overcoming your Fears
Reimer bases his response to fear and strategy for overcoming fears on the words of Paul from Philipians 4:4-7:
“Rejoice in the Lord always, I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”
This passage is broken into 6 sections.
One: Praise
This first step is to move the focus on your mind, the focus of your soul, away from the thing that is causing you fear and onto God. Emotions can be all consuming while they are being experienced, but taking the time to allow yourself to find peace in the presence of God, allowing yourself to acknowledge the loving power of God, can allow you to make a wise decision.
Two: Gentleness
Fear elicits responses of self-defense. Sometimes a person becomes combative with those around them, and sometimes that person throws up walls to avoid honest engagement with others. Neither exhibit the open hearted gentleness that would be evident to all as the passage dictates. For healing to occur you have to first stop fighting with your fear and face it head on.
Three: The Lord is Near
As you confront the thing that causes you fear with grace and gentleness, remember that the presence of God goes with you into that uncharted place. You begin with acknowledging the presence of God and that carries with you through every breath, allow yourself to remember that in times when staying in the peace and gentleness becomes difficult.
Four: Redemptive Suffering
Deep fears aren’t born out of the bright shinning moments of our lives, but out of the darkest moments, out of the times when a person is hurt so deeply they vow never to allow themselves to be hurt like that again, and whenever something comes close, you recognize the danger of feeling that pain and fight back. There is no way out of fear without acknowledging that pain and experiencing it. Feelings are created to be experienced, even the painful ones. Healing necessitates suffering, but Jesus Christ is “the man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief” and will remain present with you through any moment of pain.
Six: Action
Conquering fear does not only happen in the mind and the soul, but also need to be manifested in the body, in the behaviours, in the choices that you make. Courage is choosing to do what is best despite fear and danger. Determine prayerfully what needs to be done to overcome your fear, this is often the opposite thing than the fear says you should do. If fear says to cut people out of your life when you feel unsafe, courage is to, in prayerful and wise consideration allow yourself to become vulnerable in relationships and create real connections. If fears says to stay silent when you are afraid you will not be loved or accepted if you speak, to speak the truth in gentleness, compassion, and wisdom. If fear tells you to push yourself harder and longer to make yourself worthy, courage is to sit in stillness in the presence of God and allow him to restore your soul.
Reimer, R. “Soul Care.”
Steimer, T. “The biology of fear.” Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience. Sept 4(3): 231-249. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3181681/
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