{"id":98,"date":"2011-02-18T12:22:18","date_gmt":"2011-02-18T17:22:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/example.org\/faith-or-phobia"},"modified":"2011-02-18T12:22:18","modified_gmt":"2011-02-18T17:22:18","slug":"faith-or-phobia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/2011\/02\/faith-or-phobia.html","title":{"rendered":"Faith or phobia?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Images\" Then he got into the boat and his disciples followed him.\u00a0Without warning, a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping.\u00a0The disciples went and woke him, saying, \u201cLord, save us! We\u2019re going to drown!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

He replied,\u00a0\u201cYou of little faith, why are you so afraid?\u201d\u00a0Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm.<\/em><\/p>\n

The men were amazed and asked, \u201cWhat kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!<\/em>\u201d – Matthew 8:23-27 (NIV)<\/p>\n

How do you live your life? Is it driven by faith or fear? The truth is, for most people, phobias determine how they live. Many choose to live life with an attitude of playing it safe and avoiding their fears.<\/p>\n

Those who live a life navigating around fear are in good company. Let’s face it. There is a lot to be afraid of these days! Wars, terrorism, global warming, layoffs, rising prices… and that was just last night’s news!<\/p>\n

A recent survey found these ten phobias to be those most often expressed by Americans:<\/p>\n

Top Ten Phobias in America<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Arachnophobia – fear of spiders.<\/li>\n
  2. Social phobia – fear of public speaking, public situations.<\/li>\n
  3. Aerophobia – fear of flying.<\/li>\n
  4. Agoraphobia – fear of leaving home or answering the door.<\/li>\n
  5. Claustrophobia – fear of being trapped in tight spaces.<\/li>\n
  6. Acrophobia – fear of heights.<\/li>\n
  7. Emetophobia – fear of vomit.<\/li>\n
  8. Carcinophobia – fear of cancer.<\/li>\n
  9. Brontophobia – fear of thunderstorms.<\/li>\n
  10. Necrophobia – fear of death.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Life is filled with things that go bump in the night. Life is scary. But do we have to live a life disabled by fear? Isn’t there better way?<\/p>\n

    There is. We can choose to follow Jesus. Jesus calls his disciples to follow him and to enter into his safety. That is why we call him Savior. He saves us from the consequences of our sin. Those who follow Jesus are found safe in him.<\/p>\n

    But after he saves us, he sends us back out into dangerous waters to share the message of salvation to others. Jesus calls us to pursue a life of significance, not safety.<\/p>\n

    It may seem strange medicine for fear sufferers, but Jesus often calls us into life’s storms. Why? Because it’s in the storms, when we’re facing our worst fears, that we cry out to Christ for help. It may feel as if he isn’t listening. It may seem that he has left us. But he never leaves. He is always present and waiting for us to learn to call on Him.\u00a0Jesus wants to turn our fears into faith. How? By facing them, head on, while trusting in his Name.<\/p>\n

    Is Jesus leading you to follow into an area where you are afraid? What will you choose? Faith or phobia?<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Then he got into the boat and his disciples followed him.\u00a0Without warning, a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping.\u00a0The disciples went and woke him, saying, \u201cLord, save us! We\u2019re going to drown!\u201d He replied,\u00a0\u201cYou of little faith, why are you so afraid?\u201d\u00a0Then<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1762,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2061,1,2062],"tags":[],"location":[],"class_list":["post-98","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-religion","category-uncategorized","category-weblogs"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98"},{"taxonomy":"location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/location?post=98"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}