Overcoming Fear Through Faith: Why True Awe of God Brings Peace, Not Anxiety

Fear is an emotion that many of us know too well. It often arises from several causes:

1. Pride: Many times, people are afraid to take action because they fear the reactions of friends and family. This fear can also take the form of hesitation to do meaningful things, such as organizing Torah classes in the neighborhood or inspiring others to return to faith. Deep down, the fear is: “What if I fail? What will people think of me?” This is known as fear of failure.

The solution lies in remembering and internalizing the verse: “The Lord bestows grace and honor” (Tehillim 84:12), and also: “To the humble He gives grace” (Mishlei 3:34). Our finding favor in the eyes of others depends only on God, and if we act for His sake, He will pour upon us grace from Heaven.

We all know people who chase after honor, desperately trying to gain approval, but honor runs from them, and the public secretly despises them. In contrast, those who run away from honor are exactly the ones whom honor pursues.

Finding favor is in God’s hands alone. Even if we act in ways contrary to seeking honor, God can still grant us grace, and others will respect us for our genuine faith and standing firmly by our principles without fear.

This is the promise of Shlomo Hamelech (King Solomon): “To the humble He gives grace.” Precisely the humble person, who hides his good deeds, admits mistakes publicly, and walks humbly — though by nature he has no reason to be admired, he is the one to whom God grants special favor.

2. Fear of punishment: For a long period in my life, I constantly felt that at any moment God was ready to punish me for all my sins. This fear paralyzed me from even simple actions.

At first, I thought this was “fear of Heaven”, but later I realized that true awe of Heaven should not lead to sadness and anxiety. That kind of fear only comes from misunderstanding God’s attributes.

For Those Who Fear Illness

Many people are consumed by fear of diseases and worry that every ache or pain might be something terrible. To them I say: there is a guarantee for protection from dreadful illness, given by King David himself: “Who is the man who desires life, who loves days to see good? Guard your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking deceit. Turn away from evil and do good, seek peace and pursue it.” (Tehillim 34:13–15)

A person who guards their tongue, avoids speaking ill of others, and pursues peace is promised long life and goodness.

“No One Is Out to Get You”

Consider a child who misbehaves. Would his father spend his time constantly plotting to punish him? Would he always be “looking to catch him”? Of course not! On the contrary, a loving father hopes for his child’s success far more than the child himself does.

The same is true with God. His love for us is infinite and all He desires is that we recognize our mistakes, return to Him, and trust that He will welcome us back with complete love. To think that He sits waiting to punish us, is actually a dishonor to Him.

Harsh Judgment Leads to Harsh Judgment

Often, a person who constantly fears divine punishment, also views others through the same lens of harsh judgment. If someone hurts him, he quickly thinks: “That person deserves a heavy punishment.” If he sees someone sin, he concludes: “That wicked man! Surely a disaster will soon befall him.” Even if his own children disobey, he immediately thinks of harsh punishments.

The cure for this is to learn from God’s own attributes: slow to anger, abundant in kindness and truth. When we look at Jewish history, we see how patient God was with the nation until they repented. Sometimes we see a man of 60 years return in repentance after decades of straying, and we realize that for 60 years God gave him breath, food, shelter, even family, despite his rebellion. God patiently waited for him to discover the truth, never rushing to punish.

If we train ourselves to think positively about ourselves and about others, we will view things differently. When we see a fellow Jew sin, we can give him the benefit of the doubt: perhaps he doesn’t know it’s forbidden, or perhaps he doesn’t understand its seriousness. Maybe his inner struggle is so fierce that in his place, we would do worse.

The Talmud (Berachot 19a) teaches: “If you see a Torah scholar commit a sin at night, do not suspect him by day, for he has surely repented.”

Fear rooted in pride or in a distorted view of God leads only to paralysis and judgment of others. True awe of Heaven, however, comes with trust in God’s goodness, patience, and love — freeing us from fear and filling us with life.