Spiritual Vertigo

One minute he was feeling fine; the next minute he was feeling awful. What came on so suddenly? Virus? Blood pressure? Heart problems? Diagnosis: Vertigo, commonly known as inner ear problems. If you’ve ever been plagued with this malady, you know how unnerving it can be. You’re sitting in a chair and feel as if you’re falling. You’re lying in bed and feel as if it jumped out from under you. You’re walking through the kitchen and the floor moves to the ceiling. And you thought you were doing so well.

Does that ever happen to you spiritually? Satan likes to sneak up on us and zap us with inner spirit problems. The insidious attack begins to show itself when we don’t pray in a focused, Spirit-led way. Or we ‘don’t have time for’ Bible reading and meditation. Or we skip church one Sunday, then two. And what happens? The dog trips us and we ‘lose our religion’. The boss reprimands us and we tear someone’s reputation to shreds. The better half breathes hard in our space and we go ballistic.

But it happened so suddenly! No, it didn’t. That’s why we need to pay so much attention to the disciplines of prayer, Bible study and corporate worship. These disciplines lead us to godly behavior. We need to be intentional in our spiritual growth. Second Peter 1:5-9 (niv) says,

For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to
goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control,
perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly
kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in
increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive
in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But if anyone does not have them, he
is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his
past sins.

Spiritual vertigo. Don’t let it catch you by surprise. Let’s be intentional in our walk with God so our gate will be steady, our gaze sure and our path straight.