Fear and Faith: Finding the Peace Your Heart Craves

by Trillia J. Newbell

I began to live in fear of sinning. I began to question my motives, actions, thoughts—everything—and assume everyone was questioning them

I was afraid of the judgment of others. I was terrified of the opinions of others. I judged others in fear, and I feared man.

Caring deeply about what others think can be damaging to our faith and bring great despair. At least that was the case for me.

pleasing people.

fear of man and desire to honor my father was actually a God-given, gracious wedge of protection.

My father did instill in me a love for people, so not everything I did was to people please, but the idea of disappointing my father tore me up inside.

I had come to believe that the opinions of others about me were far greater than God’s.

Lou Priolo wrote in his book Pleasing People that one of the many temptations a people pleaser might face is “an excessive love of praise [that] tempts you to believe man’s opinion of yourself over God’s opinion.”

Social media has a way of pulling out the fear of man. We check to see who has “liked” our post or picture, fearing what we write, hoping to be noticed.

you and I deny Christ every time we care more about what others think of us than of what God has already declared.

Every time we seek man’s approval and praise,

We are presented before the Lord as concerned only with loving and pleasing Him—and it is finished because of Christ. He is already pleased with you and with me.

There’s another troubling problem with the fear of man, one that we might not give much thought to, and that is judgment.

Our made-up scenarios and fear can lead to judging others.

Someone forgets to answer an email, so you assume you’re not a priority and that she is selfish.

what the other person thinks or does, but our preoccupation with worrying about what others think of us drives us to sinfully judge.

Gospel humility is not needing to think about myself. Not needing to connect things with myself. It is an end to thoughts such as, “I’m in this room with these people, does that make me look good? Do I want to be here?” True gospel humility means I stop connecting every experience, every conversation, with myself.

Do you realize that it is only in the gospel of Jesus Christ that you get the verdict before the performance? … In Christianity, the verdict leads to performance. It is not the performance that leads to the verdict. In Christianity, the moment we believe, God says, “This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.” Or take Romans 8:1, which says, “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in

The verdict of “well done” is in, and as a result you and I run the race of faith, putting off judgment and the fear of man.

But if God calls us to “rejoice with those who rejoice” (Romans 12:15),

Encouragement isn’t about us, and it really isn’t about the person receiving it either.

So let’s look for ways to build each other up and to spur each other on in love.

For we know that our flesh and heart may fail us, but we also know that God is our strength and portion forevermore (Psalm 73:26).