In his book The Burden Is Light: Liberating Your Life from the Tyranny of Performance and Success, author Jon Tyson offers reasons we fear about.

We have a fear of being left out, a fear of failure, a fear of rejection, a fear that our children will forget about us when they leave home, a fear that loved ones will leave us, that our spouses will lose interest, that our beauty will fade, that our jobs will be automated, that our food will cause cancer, that our president will spark an international war, that mo­ rality will be destroyed, that the market will crash again, that our friends will move away, that the church will drift into liberalism, that our cl1ildren will drift from their faith. When we think seriously about the complexities of this particular time in history and realize all that could possibly go wrong, it is easy to let a spirit of fear grip our hearts. But fear doesn’t bring freedom; fear brings slavery.

“Fear works in such a way that the object of the fear is almost irrelevant. Fearful people are more alike than the differences between the foci of their fear might suggest. Fear takes on its own life. Fearful people live within restrictive boundaries. They may appear quite cautious and conservative. Or they may narrow the horizons of their life by avoidance and compulsion. They also tend to be highly vigilant, ever guarding against life’s moving out of the bounds within which they feel most comfortable. Because of this, fear breeds control. People who live in fear feel compelled to remain in control. They attempt to control themselves and they attempt to control their world. Often despite their best intentions, this spills over into efforts to control others.”

David Benner, Surrender to Love: Discovering the Heart of Christian Spirituality