On the Sunday before Thanksgiving we took a survey here at Grace Church that had 12 fears regarding the future on it along with some blank lines. We asked our people that Sunday to mark their greatest fear regarding the future. The top 5 will be used as the topics for our FACE YOUR FEARS series beginning in April. Fear of Death was not on the list because we are starting the series on Easter with that topic. We received 475 surveys accounting for 43% of that morning’s auditorium attendance. The results were:
1 - Fear of Disappointing God – 119 votes
2 - The Fear of Financial Failure – 49 votes
3 - The Fear of Sickness – 48 votes
4 - The Fear of a Broken Marriage/Relationship – 39 votes
5 - The Fear of Being Alone – 36 votes
6 - The Fear of My Kids Rebelling – 34 votes
7 - Fear of Insignificance – 22 votes
8 - The Fear of Change – 20 votes
9 - The Fear of Terrorism – 17 votes
10 - Direction of our country/government – 15 votes
11 - Fear that God/Heaven Not Real – 11 votes
12 - Having a lost family member – 8 votes
13 - The Fear of Aging – 6 votes
14 - Losing a child/death of a family member – 5 votes
15 - Living outside of God’s will tied with Our children’s future – 4 votes each
Below are just a few other fears that were written in on the survey:
What we will have to go through before Christ’s return
Christianity being too convenient
Wasting my life
Having my name blotted out of the book of life
Disappointing my wife
Fatness
Not trusting God completely
Someone I love getting hurt
Religious persecution
Being abused
Failing as a Christian
Having another miscarriage
The failure of our local church
Success
Infertility
My kids being bullied
Nuclear attack
1 - Fear of Disappointing God – 119 votes
2 - The Fear of Financial Failure – 49 votes
3 - The Fear of Sickness – 48 votes
4 - The Fear of a Broken Marriage/Relationship – 39 votes
5 - The Fear of Being Alone – 36 votes
6 - The Fear of My Kids Rebelling – 34 votes
7 - Fear of Insignificance – 22 votes
8 - The Fear of Change – 20 votes
9 - The Fear of Terrorism – 17 votes
10 - Direction of our country/government – 15 votes
11 - Fear that God/Heaven Not Real – 11 votes
12 - Having a lost family member – 8 votes
13 - The Fear of Aging – 6 votes
14 - Losing a child/death of a family member – 5 votes
15 - Living outside of God’s will tied with Our children’s future – 4 votes each
Below are just a few other fears that were written in on the survey:
What we will have to go through before Christ’s return
Christianity being too convenient
Wasting my life
Having my name blotted out of the book of life
Disappointing my wife
Fatness
Not trusting God completely
Someone I love getting hurt
Religious persecution
Being abused
Failing as a Christian
Having another miscarriage
The failure of our local church
Success
Infertility
My kids being bullied
Nuclear attack
Hum, I found it interesting and encouraging at the same time that the fear of disappointing God was the number one fear of your survey. Encouraging,at least in my mind because it displays a passion within their souls to "be pleasing unto the Lord." I was reading in 2Chronicles 16 this morning and verse 9 reads,"For the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His...." May it be said of all God's disciples and be true that we have hearts that our completely His.
ReplyDeleteAmen, anonymous!
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