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Pastor Chris White says to all of you: HELLO MY FRIENDS. May the Lord bless you today.
HOLA MIS AMIGOS. Que el Señor los bendiga.
According to the Mayo Clinic website,
a panic attack is “a sudden episode of intense fear that
triggers severe physical reactions when there is no real danger or apparent
cause.” Many people have experienced one or two such episodes and know how
frightening the spells can be. There is a difference between the defined
medical condition and an ongoing sense of fear that characterizes many people’s
lives. A panic attack comes on for no apparent reason, lasts from five to
thirty minutes and then subsides—again, for no obvious reason. It is a physical
“fight-or-flight” reaction that involves accelerated heart rate, sweating,
muscle tension, and pounding pulse, just as if a real danger threatened.
Although many factors, including biology and heredity, can contribute to panic
attacks, the underlying issue is fear. Panic is fear gone wild. We live in an
era of extreme stress and information overload. Thousands of bits of
fear-inducing information enter our brains every day, and, although we may not
consciously process it, that information is retained and can form an underlying
attitude of hopelessness we may not even be aware of.
The Bible does not speak of panic attacks by name, but it does present several
situations that could provoke one. Many times the Bible reports that people
were “filled with fear.” That describes panic. In panic mode, a person is
completely overcome by the fear response. Psalm 55:4–8 describes what a panic attack
feels like: “My heart is in anguish within me; the terrors of death have fallen
on me. Fear and trembling have beset me; horror has overwhelmed me. I said,
‘Oh, that I had the wings of a dove! I would fly away and be at rest. I would
flee far away and stay in the desert.’”
One key to overcoming panic attacks is to normalize them. Rather than fear
another attack, we can recognize that they are not life-threatening and that
God is bigger than the fear. When we begin learning how to let God handle our
daily fears, we remove some of the stimuli that can provoke an attack. Allowing
fear or worry to build up without facing it and intentionally casting it upon
God (1 Peter 5:7) can lead to an eventual panic
attack. Denying that we are afraid, pretending we are not worried, or obsessing
over our fears can all contribute to our bodies’ reacting in panic. “Fear not”
is one of the most common commands in the Bible. God understands that we are
prone to fear, and He wants us to have faith instead (Isaiah 35:4; 41:10; Luke 12:4; 1 Peter 3:14).
Jesus put fear in perspective when He said, “Do not be afraid of those who kill
the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy
both soul and body in hell” (Matthew 10:28). He was
calling attention to the fact that most of what we fear is temporary and of no
eternal consequence. We should rather focus our concerns on whether or not we
are in right relationship with God. He has then promised to meet all our other
needs (Philippians 4:19; Matthew 6:33). One way we focus on the
important is by applying Proverbs 3:5: “Trust in
the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.” When we
refuse to allow our limited understanding to determine our level of peace and
joy, we are on our way to escaping the grip of panic attacks.
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