God’s Grace in Facing Our Fears

Most people can relate to the feeling of fear. Fear benefits us when it sets off alarm bells, cluing us in that something is not right, even when we can’t quite put our finger on what is wrong. Our ability to feel fear is God-designed, wired into us as a gift for protection and awareness.

Yet we live in a world tainted by sin, and fears may feel abundant and overwhelming to the point of becoming a serious problem. What we fear can reveal both godly and sinful things about our hearts, mental health, and relationships. Thankfully, we have a God who is present and gracious in the midst of our fears, one who does not leave us to our own devices when we face them.

When Fear Becomes Harmful

As someone with an anxious personality, I am sadly well-acquainted with the ways fear can work against us. In my career as a Christian counselor, I know I am not alone in experiencing its detrimental effects. Fear becomes harmful in several ways: when it turns into an idol, when it fuels mental health struggles, when it damages our relationships, or some combination of all three.

For those unfamiliar with idols in the Biblical sense, they can be anything we love, serve, and fear more than God: money, power, fame, success, status, comfort, and safety. When fear becomes an idol, our actions, thoughts, and words are all shaped by it. We pour our energy into preventing feared outcomes or softening their impact if they do occur.

Scripture and the Reality of Suffering

During college, I came across a passage that has stayed with me ever since. In Job 3:25–26, Job cries out:

“For the thing I fear comes upon me, and what I dread befalls me. I am not at ease, nor am I quiet; I have no rest, but trouble comes.”

— Job 3:25–26 (ESV)

Job is apparently saying he had previously feared the very suffering he was now enduring. Though I would never claim to have suffered as Job did, there have been times I endured the very things I feared most. In those moments, I dared to ask God why my worst fears were being allowed to find me and offer me no rest, no peace, no comfort.

I believed God to be good, His Word affirms it in Psalm 34:8, Psalm 136:1, and Mark 10:18. Yet I struggled to understand why a good God would allow this. My feelings told me that coming face to face with my fears was not good.

It was through this passage that I believe God gave me a new insight. What if part of His infinitely wise plan is to bring us face to face with our fears, even our worst fears, so we have no choice but to confront them? What if this is not cruelty, but care? This shift dramatically changed my perspective.

Three Reasons Confronting Fear Can Be Good

1. God May Be Setting You Free

In my counseling work, I use Exposure Therapy with many clients, including Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) specifically for those with OCD. The premise is that by facing fears and learning to coexist with the discomfort of their possibility, clients are eventually set free from them. God’s design mirrors this process. By bringing us into contact with what we fear, He dismantles its hold on us.

2. God Is Calling Us to Fear Him Above All Else

I am guilty of letting my fears become idols. When I invest all of my energy into avoiding feared outcomes, controlling, managing, preparing, I am often demonstrating a lack of faith in God’s sovereignty. Coming into contact with our fears is inevitable in this sin-cursed world, and learning to live with that discomfort, rather than letting it dictate our lives, is part of what it means to revere God above all things.

3. You Can Testify to God’s Goodness on the Other Side

Having experienced some of my worst fears, I have seen that I can live through them, fueled by God’s grace and power. More than that, I have concluded that God is still good. In fact, God is so good that He not only leads us into seasons of facing our fears, but He walks with us through the whole messy process, lovingly orchestrating our growth, healing, and sanctification in ways we could never imagine on our own.

A Word of Hope

God gives infinite grace to His children as we face our fears. There are times where our fears feel out of control, running and ruining our lives. But God graciously and lovingly helps us confront those fears so that they no longer imprison us, that we might fear and revere Him above all else.

I pray we all might be witnesses to His goodness, even in the face of evidence to the contrary. And I leave you with the words of the Apostle Paul:

“Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”

— Ephesians 3:20–21