Fear

When I am afraid, I will put my trust in you.
Psalm 56:3 · WEB

If you are frightened of someone, start with safety. Everything else on this page can wait.

Find support near me What can I do right now?

If you're feeling this

Fear is not always irrational. Sometimes it is the most accurate thing about your situation, and the most important thing you can do with it is listen to it.

So this page splits two ways. If you are afraid of something that might happen, there is Scripture and there are steps. If you are afraid of someone — if a person in your life has hurt you or is threatening to — then safety comes before everything, including anything anyone has told you about forgiveness or submission.

No verse on this page is an instruction to stay somewhere you are being harmed.

The design

Jesus

He awoke, and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” The wind ceased, and there was a great calm. He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? How is it that you have no faith?”
Mark 4:39-40 · WEB

Every other design in this series carries a creature. This one does not, and that is the point.

The disciples are in a boat in a storm that frightens experienced fishermen, and Jesus is asleep. They wake him — not calmly. He speaks to the wind, and then he asks them why they were so afraid.

It is worth being honest about that question, because it can be read as a rebuke and it has been used as one. But look at the order of events. He deals with the storm first. The question comes afterward, to men who are already safe, in a boat that is no longer taking on water. He does not stand in the wind lecturing them about their faith while the boat fills.

That is the pattern this page follows. Safety first, then the conversation. Anyone who reverses that order — who tells you to pray harder while you are still in danger — has the sequence backwards, and it is not the one Jesus used.

Fear is the one design in the series without a creature on it. Nothing in Scripture answers fear the way a person does.

Scripture

Scripture for this moment

Open the one that matches where you are. You don't have to read them all.

When you are afraid of what is coming
Yahweh is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? Yahweh is the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid?

Psalm 27:1 · WEB

The question is rhetorical, and it is asked by someone who was being hunted at the time. This is not the confidence of a person with nothing to lose.

When you have to do it anyway
Be strong and courageous. Don’t be afraid or scared of them; for Yahweh your God himself is who goes with you. He will not fail you nor forsake you.”

Deuteronomy 31:6 · WEB

Spoken to people about to walk into something genuinely dangerous. Courage here is not the absence of fear; it is what you do while afraid, and the reason given is company, not capability.

When you do not feel safe
He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of Yahweh, “He is my refuge and my fortress; my God, in whom I trust.”

Psalm 91:1-2 · WEB

Hold this alongside a practical truth: God protects people, and God also gave us locks, neighbours, police and shelters. Using those is not a failure to trust him.

When fear is making your decisions
For God didn’t give us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and self-control.

2 Timothy 1:7 · WEB

The phrase worth sitting with is a sound mind. Fear degrades judgement, which is why decisions made inside it are worth checking with someone calm before you act on them.

When you need help immediately
God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

Psalm 46:1 · WEB

A very present help in trouble. Present tense, and present tense help usually arrives with hands and a phone number attached.

Practical

What can I do right now?

Start with the first one. If that's all you manage today, that counts.

  1. If you are in immediate danger, call 911

    Not later, and not after you have decided whether it counts as bad enough. It counts.

  2. Tell one person outside the situation

    Someone who is not connected to whoever is frightening you. Isolation is what keeps dangerous situations going.

  3. Call a hotline before you decide anything

    The National Domestic Violence Hotline will not tell you what to do or push you to leave. They will help you think, confidentially, and they take calls about situations people are not sure "count".

  4. Make a safety plan, even if you are staying

    Where you would go, who you would call, what you would need to take, how you would get out of the house. Having one costs nothing and changes everything if the night comes.

  5. Keep documents and money somewhere you can reach

    ID, medication, a spare phone or charger, some cash, with someone you trust. Practical preparation is not disloyalty.

  6. Do not confront the person who frightens you

    Confrontation raises risk sharply, and it is the moment when things most often escalate. Talk to a hotline or a counsellor about how to handle it before you say anything.

  7. Find a trauma-informed counsellor

    If the fear comes from something that already happened, this is the specific kind of help that works. Ask directly whether they are trauma-informed — it is a normal question.

Support

You don't have to face this alone

If someone is hurting you or threatening you, the people below deal with exactly this every day, and they will not judge your situation or tell you what you have to do next.

Nobody at this store is qualified to advise you on your safety, and we are not going to pretend otherwise. These organisations are.

If you need help right now

Professional support

Church and pastoral support

Community and support groups

These organisations are independent of Boro Collective. We list them because they do this work well, not because we are connected to them.

Community

Find community near you

Faith and practical help are not competing ideas. A church, a counsellor and a support group can all be part of the same week.

Looking for something besides a church?

We don't keep our own directory, so this opens a map search you can scan yourself. We would rather send you somewhere real than list a church we cannot vouch for.

Foundations

Build your foundation

No one of these carries a life on its own. They hold together.

  • Safety

    Nothing else on this list works in a place that is not safe. If you are being hurt or threatened, safety comes before every other step here — including forgiveness.

  • Community

    Not an audience — a handful of people who would notice if you went quiet for a fortnight. Most of us have to build that on purpose.

  • Faith

    Honest prayer counts more than eloquent prayer. Scripture read slowly counts more than Scripture read fast. A pastor who knows your name is worth more than any of it.

  • Professional support

    Seeing a counsellor is not a failure of faith any more than seeing a doctor about a broken arm is. Some things need a trained person.

  • Physical health

    Almost every emotion is louder on no sleep and an empty stomach. This is not the whole answer, and it is never nothing.

From the shop

Carry this reminder with you

Nothing here is part of the help above. If a shirt makes the words easier to keep in front of you, it's here.

You are not alone.

Being afraid is not a lack of faith. Sometimes it is the most accurate reading of your situation, and acting on it is wisdom rather than weakness.

If someone is hurting you, please make one call today. You do not have to have decided anything yet to be allowed to ask for help.

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