In Acts chapter 4, it shows Peter and John being arrested the first time after they healed someone because they were preaching publicly. They are told to stop preaching and threatened and everything. Then they go back to their people and pray and it is this big deal, they tell everyone what happened and they all cry out to God saying “God you hear what they are saying, give us boldness to continue doing your work” God responds by sending the Holy Spirit and brings boldness.
Then in the next chapter, you see them a little further along in their walk, they are arrested and in the night they were released by an angel and told to go back and preach. It doesn’t mention about them going to anyone else, but they just went right out and preached again. It was almost like it didn’t scare them anymore and they were now not needing to pray for boldness, they just went right back out to the same place they were just arrested and started teaching and preaching again. It is amazing how God works in our life to produce growth. Often something scary or somewhat bad will happen (like being arrested for obeying God) and then you work through it, and then it happens again and God has brought growth in your life through that and it becomes much less of a daunting thing.
Then they are arrested again (because they went right back out and preached), and this time were almost sentenced to death, and they were flogged with whips, and further threatened, and it says they actually went away rejoicing that they were considered worthy of suffering for Christ. What a difference Christ can make in our lives when we allow him to do His work in us!
Maybe our prayers should be “God face me with the things I fear and give me the strength to grow through them and stop fearing them” instead of “God keep me from the things I fear” The disciples here were faced with death and had lost their fear of it, not by dying, but by being faced with the possibility and allowing God to bring about growth through it.