In case you haven’t realised it, today is Friday the 13th of January 2012. Yes, Friday the 13th!!! Is it an unlucky day? Can there really be a day that we can call ‘unlucky’, or is this another lie of the devil carefully crafted to create fear in the world?
According to Wikipedia, “The fear of Friday the 13th is called friggatriskaidekaphobia (Frigga being the name of the Norse goddess for whom "Friday" is named and triskaidekaphobia meaning fear of the number thirteen), or paraskevidekatriaphobia a concatenation of the Greek words Paraskeví (Παρασκευή, meaning "Friday"), and dekatreís (δεκατρείς, meaning “thirteen”) attached to phobía (φοβία, from phóbos, φόβος, meaning “fear”). The latter word was derived in 1911and first appeared in a mainstream source in 1953. According to folklorists, there is no written evidence for a “Friday the 13th” superstition before the 19th century. The earliest known documented reference in English occurs in Henry Sutherland Edwards' 1869 biography of Gioachino Rossini: ‘Rossini was surrounded to the last by admiring and affectionate friends; Why Friday the 13th Is Unlucky.’
Consequently, several theories have been proposed about the origin of the Friday the 13th superstition. One theory states that it is a modern amalgamation of two older superstitions: that thirteen is an unlucky number and that Friday is an unlucky day…”
Fear is not of God. It is false evidence appearing real. Today isn’t an unlucky day simply because it is Friday which happens to be the thirteenth day of the month! Instead, it is the day that the Lord made with the intention that we rejoice and be glad in it.
If you are one of those who have friggatriskaidekaphobia i.e. the fear of Friday the 13th, I have good news for you. I understand that the words “fear thee not” appears 366 times in the Bible, meaning that God has made provision for you not to be afraid every day of the year, with an extra provision for when we have a leap year!
A phobia is a crippling and unreasonable fear. Every phobia is essentially an oppression of the devil. If Jesus has set you free, then you are free indeed. Your freedom in Christ includes freedom from fear and phobias. Fear cripples the mind and stops one from rational thinking. In 2 Timothy 1:7 the Bible tells us, “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind”. Jesus has taken care of fear. You don’t need to be afraid!
No comments:
Post a Comment