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A Fear of Phobias

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Do you know what a "phobia" is? It's a fancy word that means "fear of"- so when you have a phobia, you have an overwhelming fear of something or someone. This is a good word to know, because most people have at least one or two phobias lurking around in their subconscious. Let me give you some examples of common things that go bump in the mind to see if any of them ring a bell...and if you have a fear of bells, I apologize in advance.

Arachnophobia - Fear of spiders
Count me in this crowd! Those creepy crawly creatures from hell give me a serious case of jitters topped off with the heeby jeebies!

Acrophobia - Fear of heights
I don't have this, but it makes sense, because as it turns out, falling off a high place can cause bodily injury.

Emetophobia - Fear of vomit
'Nuff said...I just had to throw that one up for you.

Then there are some very strange ones that sort of make you wonder what happened to the poor folks who suffer from them. Like Stasiphobia, which is fear of standing or walking.

I'm thinking they don't get out much.

Or Technophobia, which is fear of technology. These are the few people on the planet who probably don't have a MySpace account.

And what about vestiphobia - the fear of clothing? Whoa!

But my all time favorite is walloonphobia - the fear of the Walloons...which sends my mind reeling with questions like - who or what are the Walloons, and why should I be afraid of them?

There is one phobia, though, that a Christian never has to worry about. It's called autophobia - the fear of being alone. To be sure, this is one phobia that Satan would love to get woven into the fabric of your life, because once he pries open the door of feeling abandoned, a host of other temptations can creep in and ruin your life. Think about it, loneliness drives males to pornography and females to bad relationships. But worst of all, if you feel God has left you, your joy in life will evaporate like a snowball in Satan's future residence.

Do you feel like God has left you? Do you have God-autophobia? If so, I have some medication to offer you that, if taken regularly, will cure you and give you a sense of relationship with Christ like you have never felt before. It's a three verse trifecta that wins every time you let it soak into your worldview. Check it out:

"I have loved you with an everlasting love..." (Jeremiah 31:3)

Notice the strange combination of wording in this verse? It's not "I will love you" or "I'm going to love you"...rather I have loved you - meaning not only has God loved us a long time; He has actually loved us before time was even invented!

Maybe you thought that when the doctor held you up as a brand new baby, God looked down and said, "How cute! I think I'll love that little bundle of joy forever!" Or perhaps you were under the impression that Jesus didn't smile on you until you trusted Christ as your only hope of salvation? Well perhaps His smile got a little bigger that day, but His love was coming your way before you even came your way.

God's love for me is the most constant and unchanging thing in the universe. In fact, it will still be going long after the universe is gone! For Him to abandoned us would contradict His unchanging and everlasting love:

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:38-39)

Again, if God were to leave us, that would separate us from His love, which, according to God's own words, will never happen.

Speaking of never neverlands, here is the money verse (actually, it is partially about money):

Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said,
"Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you." (Hebrews 13:5)

What makes this verse such an uber-promise is the way it reads in the original language. In the Greek this verse has a double negative that occurs twice and there is another negative that occurs once. This makes a total of five negatives in one verse! It could be translated as follows:

I will (1) never (2) ever leave thee, (3) no, I will (4) never (5) ever forsake thee.

Wow! All those negatives sure add up to one huge positive - as in you can be positive that Jesus will never abandon, abdicate, back out, bail out, bow out, cast off, chicken out, cop out, cut loose, deep six, desert, discard, discontinue, disown, ditch, drift away, drop, drop out, dump, forsake, give up, or kiss you goodbye. Ever.

By the way, there is one healthy phobia I forgot to mention...it's called Satanophobia - I'm guessing you can figure this one out, but don't let him figure out how to make you feel alone, because you never-ever-no-never-ever will be. You can take that one to the bank, unless of course you have a fear of...oh never mind!

Head: What you need to know about this truth

It is impossible for a Christian to be alone, because God loves us with an eternal love that nothing can seprate us from, and He has promised to never leave us or forsake us.

Heart: What you need to feel about this truth

Secure. Getting a hold on this truth should feel like a warm blanket on a cold night. The words lonely and Christian should never go together, because God loves you and is always with you. If you are lonely, it is because you are believing the lies of Satan. Don't.

Hands: What you need to do about this truth

Write a prayer/poem of thanksgiving to Jesus for His amazing, unchanging, and eternal love and for the fact that He will never leave you or forsake you.