Who am I to write about fear? Who am I to write about fearing man? Your talking about the girl who shivered at the idea of talking to someone, who stopped herself from trying something new in fear of what others would think of her. The younger me feared of talking to someone, she feared of not talking to someone–no matter what I did I feared what others would think. The older I got my fear of man deepened. I eventually hid myself from most anything exciting. I wanted nothing to do with, in case I would make a fool of myself. I thought to myself, “what will they think of me?” When I didn’t join in with others, I feared again, “what will they think of me?”

As you can tell by now, this thought constantly haunted me. It followed me everywhere, like a cloud over my head. I’m talking about my life from age twelve to fifteen. After this I still feared other’s thoughts, but they slowly began to vanish. You’ll almost always see this happen to preteens and young teens, but it doesn’t always stay in the early teens does it? Sometimes fear of man follows you through your life. It sits in the passenger seat on your way to work, on the seat beside you in school, it follows you in the hallways, it shadows you in the kitchen when your making dinner. To bad it doesn’t do the dishes right? Fear does nothing good for us. See if you can think of something good it did for you.

The fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trust in the Lord is safe. Proverbs 29:25 ESV

So we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?” Hebrew 13:6 ESV

You may have noticed I’m not talking about just fear, I’m talking about fear of man. The other day our Minister reminded the youth we are not supposed to fear man. We were all suppose to read something out laud and some of us were really nervous about it. That’s when I began to really think about it. Before I simply thought of it as being afraid what others would think of me. But then I realized, I was afraid of man. Like I said, my fear of man faded. The idea of what man would think of me didn’t occur to me anymore.

I still feel nervous when I’m doing something new, but when my nervousness is about to overtake me and turn into fear, I pray. As I pray I can feel God’s comfort over flowing me. I know the Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?

I, I am he who comforts you; who are you that you are afraid of man who dies, of the son of man who is made like grass, Isaiah 51:12 ESV

I mentioned several examples of fear of man, yet these are only a few common ones. Fear of man goes far beyond what I mentioned, I can’t began to name them all. However, what I will say yet, if we know we are not doing anything wrong, if we have no reason to fear what God will think, then more yet there is no reason to fear man. For who are men compared to God? We do not need to fear man. If the Lord is with us, what can man do to us?