25 Common Ways to Identify Fear of Man

And what to do about it

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What is fear of man? Fear of man is when you are more concerned about what people think about you than what God thinks about you.

Fearing people is a dangerous trap, but trusting the Lord means safety. — Proverbs 29:25

“Dangerous,” and “trap,” are not words most of us want characterizing our lives. So sum it up to say fear of man is bad. However, before we can work through some solutions, let’s do a quick check with our fear-o-man-ometer. Give yourself a point for each one of the following statements true of you:

1. You often worry you said the wrong thing.
2. You’ve never had a 100% conversation with someone.
3. No one who knows the darkest details of your life, or you have a secret you have never shared.
4. You always talk about your past sin instead of your present sin.
5. You often make excuses for why something is the way it is or why it can’t change.
6. You resent people when they are not impressed by you.
7. You get angry when others do not agree with you.
8. Your energy level shoots up around certain people but plummets around others.
9. You avoid certain people or situations and make excuses for avoiding them.
10. You try to put yourself in someone’s path or think about how to get them to notice you.
11. You often wonder if you have offended someone.
12. You say you do not care if you offended someone.
13. You spend more time talking about a conversation than you spent on the actual conversation.
14. You replay a conversation in your mind, thinking of all the ways it could have gone better.
15. You overreact when someone says something negative about you.
16. You skew the facts or lie about something you did.
17. You confess to God but not to others.
18. You only confess to others, not to God.
19. You fall apart when someone falsely accuses you.
20. You often over work. It reveals you have something to prove to others.