The Bread And Wine

by Warren le Grange

I’ve heard of some ridiculous fears such as Peladophobia – fear of Bald people. Or Pteronophobia – the Fear of being Tickled by Feathers. Crazy right? And then of course there’s the common type of phobias - spiders, height, public speaking and so on.

Its insane how people react when encountering their fears or just become totally afraid.

My friend started praying like crazy after seeing what she thought was a demon standing in her bedroom and it turns out to be a shape formed by the moonlight pass her pillow.

These are examples of psychological and emotional fears. There is however another dimension of fear that we as Christians more often encounter.

Faith.

People are afraid of believing. Trusting the unseen. Not knowing what’s next.

This could easily qualify as a phobia and be found up there among the ‘top tens’ just based on the amount of people that suffer from this.

Lets call it: believophobia – the fear of faith.

If you have a slight discomfort with heights and you find yourself on a ledge, strapped and about to bunjee jump for the first time.

You freeze up. You pray. You reflect on life. Cause the thought of possibly losing your life now suddenly becomes a certain reality.

Have you ever experienced this with God? When you know He’s calling you to jump off the ledge and have faith.

Then we also freeze up. Cause we now suddenly might lose our very lives.

How do we overcome this fear of trusting and believing that God actually has our best interest at heart?

What if the diagnoses to treating believophobia is fear?

Just like a chemo treatment on a cancer patient. Chemo is a drug. A lethal chemical that is used to remove the cancer and heal people.

Sad to say it, but I have more often experienced my most intimate moments with God in times of uncertainty, confusion and fear.

And in my desperation for a way out my faith in God grew stronger. Its like I had no other choice but to believe.

I believe that God will sometimes diagnose us with the most unfair, cruel or unsafe circumstances, as if to force us to be afraid, unsure, and desperate to find new faith in Him. Especially when we’ve reached a place of knowing more than believing.