Do Our Fears Reflect Holes in Our View of God?

Post from last year:
In my journey of faith in God, I'm discovering more and more that He is trustworthy in all areas of life. As I continue to mature in understanding and love (which has meant changing mindsets in the process), there are moments when I'm tempted to fear that I may be headed down the wrong road. Recently I had such a moment; then I stepped back and realized that the fact that I would fear this reflected a weakness yet in my view of God.

From the time that I was a young adult, I have periodically told the Father that I need Him to keep me steady in Him and His gospel, and I have asked Him to ensure that I am on track with Him. He has faithfully done this by one means or another. This doesn't mean that I have even come close to being perfect in all my ways of seeing God over the years, but it does mean that He has kept the living Christ central in my heart and mind.

The temptation recently to fear that I might "go off the deep end" was a temptation to think wrongly about God and His care and ability to keep me. In that moment I paused to think something to this affect: if I asked my earthly father (who wasn't perfect but genuinely cared for the well-being of his children) to watch over me and make sure I didn't go into dangers that would destroy me and others, he would gladly do that for me! 

How much more the heavenly Father, who in perfect love and power is dedicated to the well-being of His children, will do this for us when we ask! Catching a fresh glimpse of His nature and character released me from fear and from the idea that I have the ability to keep myself from "falling off the edge".

In the book Discovering the Character of God, George MacDonald writes about fearing God; he acknowledges that fear has a role to play but only until love casts it out:

"So long as love is imperfect, there is room for fear...Until love, which is the truth toward God, is able to cast out fear, it is well that fear should hold. It is a bond, however poor, between that which is and that which creates - a bond that must be broken, but a bond that can be broken only by the tightening of an infinitely closer bond.

"...If then any child of the Father finds that he is afraid before Him, let him make haste - let him not linger to put on any garment, but rush at once in his nakedness, a true child, into the salvation of the Father's arms, the home from which he was sent, that he might learn that it was his home. What father would not rejoice to see his child running to his embrace? How much more will not the Father of our spirits, who seeks nothing but His children themselves, receive us with open arms!"