ATHAZAGORAPHOBIA

For all you, who might be wondering if this is just some made-up word.

YES, it is. But I didn’t make it up. It’s in the dictionary. Look for yourselves.

Recently, we had a talk about the ever-popular board game called Scrabble.

Visit, SCRABBLE SCRAPPING — Benton T. Thompson III (bentonthompsoniii.com)

Today’s word would be great for Scrabble. You could get a lot of points with it, if you could use it.

However, this talk is not about Scrabble. It’s about how we can feel sometimes.

Let’s break the word down so we can understand its meaning.

Phobia, as we know, is fear. Agora refers to a place, and Athaz, deals with the actions of someone.

Hence Athazagoraphobia, is a fear, that someone, will leave us, somewhere.

If used in Faith terms, it would be the Fear that God would leave us. What a terrifying thought! To be left by God.

None of us, want to be left, or feel forgotten about! Right? Especially by God!

Whether waiting as a child left at school or home, waiting as an adult for a ride, or waiting for someone to keep their word about a promise they made.

No one wants to feel forgotten. No one wants to be left waiting. That is the space where fear grows.

The real root issue here is, The Waiting.  

When we are made to wait, we get afraid that we might be forgotten about, or that we have been left.

God, I don’t want to wait. You might forget about me.

You might forget what you told me, or what you promised to me.

Lord please don’t make me wait. I don’t like waiting!

For many of us, waiting is long, discouraging, and challenging.

It can conjure up, images of bad things, coming to those who wait. 

That’s because we see waiting as inactivity. Except for the biting of our nails part. Or the watching of the calendar or of a clock somewhere.

We are waiting, for the other shoe/hammer to drop on us.

That’s the only active part that we are familiar with about waiting.

But God sees it, as an opportunity for us to get stronger, while we are waiting.

Look at this revelation that God gave to his Prophet Isaiah.

Those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they will be able to soar like an eagle, they shall run and not get tired, they shall walk and not faint.

In God’s version of waiting, we gain strength, stamina, and are elevated.

Biting our nails, pacing the floor, staying up late, getting sick with worry, checking the mail, or calling folks repeatedly, will not produce those type of results.

Obviously, our type of waiting, differs greatly from God’s type of waiting.

Maybe that was just a onetime deal. Let’s see if we can find another example.

As Abraham was waiting (on Gods promise of a child) he grew in strength.

Gods waiting must resemble a workout. That’s why folks are getting stronger.

How can we get stronger like Isaiah and Abraham did while waiting on God?

Like so many other things there are Do’s and Don’ts involved with the process.

I would like to share 3 of each one for us to focus on.

Here are the Don’ts

1.     Don’t Grumble while you’re waiting

2.     Don’t Give Up while you’re waiting

3.     Don’t Go Hide while you’re waiting

If we do any of these Don’ts, we will miss the blessing that God has spent so much time preparing for us.

Let’s check out the Do’s part.

1.     Do Read – Get to know God better, by reading his word, while we are waiting.

2.    Do Reflect – On all the blessings, he has given us, while we are waiting.

3.    Do Relief - Be a blessing to someone else, who is in need, while we are waiting.

Let’s use this time of waiting, to become better students of God’s word and his ways.

Let’s use this time of waiting to learn that God is the best time manager there is.

He will do everything, at the exact, best moment in time, for us.

Nothing is wasted, nothing has been forgotten, everything will be attended to.

Therefore, we don’t have to be afraid of waiting on him and his timing.

All things will be better for us because we have learned to wait, Gods way.

He promised that he will never leave us or forget about us. So, we don’t have to worry about that part with Him.

Let’s use our time of waiting to get stronger in our Faith and Trust of God.

Waiting is not supposed to be about what we can get, once the time of waiting is over, but rather, Waiting it is about how strong we can become in our Faith, as a result of our “Wait Training”.

It’s time to get buffed in the Spirit!

                                                                        This is a Thompson Truth