5 Fears You Should Never Be Afraid Of

So many times, fear stops us from being who we should be. It immobilizes us and makes us retreat when we should move forward. Following are five fears that we all grapple with, and the reasons why we should never be afraid of them or let them stop us from stepping into the future for which we’ve been created.

1. Fear of letting go

Being in control makes us feel safe. When we think we’ve got a handle on things we believe that everything is going to be O.K. Letting go of that control can scare the daylights out of us. But it shouldn’t. Realizing that we aren’t in control and never can be is incredibly freeing. Not that life is a random crapshoot. It’s not. There is One who is in absolute control of all things. He has said, “I know the plans I have for you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Giving control to Him is the smartest thing we can ever do. In fact, it is the only thing that will make us unafraid. A rollercoaster car has two bars – one that sits across your lap and one you can hold with your hands. Trusting the one across your lap and letting go of the one for your hands is what makes the ride a screaming good time, and gives you some great pictures. Scary, yes, but you learn that the lap bar can be trusted. Life is the same way. God has got a restraint across our laps so we don’t have to hold on. We can let go and enjoy the ride.

2. Fear of not being loved

We want to be loved. We need to be loved. We were created with the longing and it is completely legitimate. Bad news though, no human being can love us perfectly. They will let us down and hurt us. We’ve all experienced it and that’s why we are afraid of trying to love others, because we’re afraid they won’t love us back. The thought of not being loved can be too painful.

There is good news though. We are loved, perfectly. The One who loves us will never hurt us, fail us or stab us in the back. Instead, He will always be there, always support us and never leave us, even when we turn our backs on Him. In fact, He loved us so much He was willing to be brutally murdered for each of us. Jesus Christ is His name and He is waiting for each of us to simply receive His love. And when we do the fact that we are loved is settled forever. We will never not be loved, treasured and accepted as the priceless treasure He created us to be. He loves us when we don’t feel lovable. No need to fear not being loved.

3. Fear of rejection

We will be rejected! People will not like our ideas and sometimes, people will not like us. Walt Disney’s idea for “The Happiest Place on Earth” was rejected 302 times before he finally found someone who would finance his dream. If he had feared rejection, we would never have been able to scream our way down the Matterhorn. His passion to bring to pass what he knew would bless people enabled him to hear “no” and not give up.

What do we have that can bless others? What can we bring to the table every day that will leave others richer for having interacted with us? When that is our primary motivation, then if we are rejected in the process, though it is painful, it can never stop us from giving love. Perfect love casts out fear, and it never lets rejection stand in its way.

Our Creator loves us, and in Christ we have found eternal acceptance and need never fear being rejected again. How many times He was rejected by those He came to bless, and it never stopped Him from doing what He came to do. He is our perfect example, and He will give us His strength to do the same.

Our acceptance or rejection by others has nothing to do with making us worthwhile, important or lovable. That worth was established once and for all when God became man and hung on a cross. Receive that and never fear being rejected again.

4. Fear of failure

One of the most prominent fears in our lives, fear of failure stops us because we believe that if we fail at something then by default, we are a failure. This stems from our misconception that what we do defines who we are. Nothing could be further from the truth. Who we are defines what we do. And when we faithfully live according to the identity that has been given us by our Creator, we are successful, whether or not our plans go the way we hope they will. In fact, many times what we deem as failure is simply God’s way of getting us to move in the direction or plan He has for us.

As with so many other things, the key is our attitude and the way we choose to look at the situation we are in. Remember Thomas Edison, who after his seven-hundredth unsuccessful attempt to invent electric light, was asked by a New York Times reporter, “How does it feel to have failed seven hundred times?” The great inventor responded, “I have not failed seven hundred times. I have not failed once. I have succeeded in proving that those seven hundred ways will not work. When I have eliminated the ways that will not work, I will find the way that will work.” Several thousand more of these successes followed until finally he found the one that would work, and invented electric light.

Never fear failure! Embrace it as an opportunity to learn and move forward with expectancy. In other words, “Fail Forward!”

5. Fear of the unknown

We don’t know what’s going to happen in a year, a month or even today! We all recognize and understand this, and for many it produces a fear that paralyzes us from doing anything today! This particular fear is birthed in worry. Worry about what might happen, or might not happen, and how it will negatively affect us. When we don’t know what’s up ahead, we tend to imagine the worst.

Why shouldn’t we be afraid of the unknown? First of all, 95 percent of the things we worry about never happen. Furthermore, as Corrie ten Boom wisely said, “Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow; it empties today of its strength.”

What we focus on is what is produced in our lives. Worry, and the fear that it produces, does not accomplish anything positive or productive. It tears down and we need to be built up.

What can do that? Truth – the truth about tomorrow, the truth about today. When we focus on the truth, the fear never has a chance to take hold.

When the nation of Israel was about to enter their promised land, their new leader Joshua must have been a bit concerned about how he was going to fill the shoes of Moses, the man who had brought them this far. An opportunity was ripe for worry and fear to take hold and immobilize him. However, truth showed up and changed his perspective. That truth took the form of the voice of the Lord as He spoke to Joshua and told him to ‘be strong and courageous, do not tremble or be afraid. For I will be with you wherever you go.’ What a promise! What a perspective changer! Talk about bringing a gun to a knife fight! No matter what the inhabitants of the land could bring against him, when Joshua realized that the Creator of the Universe had promised to be with him and give him the victory, any fear of the unknown flew out the window and absolute trust and confidence filled its place.

Today, as we follow that same Lord of Hosts in the person of Jesus Christ, we have the same promise- the one He gave when he rose into heaven. He told us that He would always be with us, until the end of the age. Talk about a promise to focus on. Jesus is with me, and you, always. No matter what happens, He is there. Fear is replaced by faith in His promise.