The quality of our fears may be known from the quality of our loves; the quality of our loves may be known by examining our fears.

 [Many of our] fears…are those that we have in common with [all people born in the natural world]. They flow into us when we lapse into sensuous and natural loves and consequent thoughts, especially if we reflect too much upon ourselves and [neglect] consideration of Divine Providence.

Even so, the Lord can make use of these fears; in fact, He must do so. The reason is that in the beginning of our regeneration, or journey from natural to spiritual life, we must start from merely natural loves, which are what prevail in our conscious minds. These loves have their natural fears. 

So it is that the fear of losing our reputation, the fear of losing our employment or some advancement in the world, the fear of losing money, can all be used as means of saving us from depravity itself. These external natural fears, which even an atheist has, can spur us on to compel ourselves against the [severest] evils of word and deed. In other words, because [of our] love of ourselves and our own worldly happiness and comfort we fear to lose them, and are compelled to restrain ourselves in order to avoid pain.

[But if we learn] the spiritual things of the Word and begin to acquire a love of coming into heaven, then, as we begin to learn more about the Lord and Divine Providence, some of these fears are lessened. However, their place may well be taken by other forms of anxiety, which flow in as a direct result of our knowledge of the life after death. As we carry out even a cursory examination of our loves and longings, we may well begin to fear for our spiritual life.

The proper way to escape from this fear is to shun our evils for no other reason than that they are sins against the Lord; in other words, to desist from them out of regard for the Lord. This regard is what is meant by loving the Lord. 

[If we] take up arms in the warfare against our natural man, we will gradually come into loves of a different quality; or rather, new loves from the Lord through heaven will begin to flow into us. We will come into love toward the neighbor, or charity, and our faith will be strengthened, our natural fears weakened.

But we will have in their place good fears. They will be heavenly, holy fears. Instead of being fears for self they will be fears on account of the neighbor's welfare. We will be anxious lest we do harm to the neighbor, lest we hinder their reception of good and truth from the Lord. Obviously this kind of fear is very different from natural fear; it is heavenly, spiritual, holy. It is a good fear.

Even better and more holy is the fear that accompanies love to the Lord, or celestial love. This is a fear of harming the Lord, a fear lest we obstruct what He wills to accomplish. 

These fears that flow in from heaven-the fear of harming the neighbor and of harming the Lord-are meant in the Word when it is said that "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." Hence we are commanded: "Fear God," which is the same as saying, "Love God," or "Worship God." It does not mean, "Be afraid of God”.  Fearing God, in the sense of being afraid of Him, belongs to natural fears.  But fear for God is a God-centered fear, holy fear.  (NCL 1968)