7 Reasons We Struggle with Spiritual Vertigo

We are in a struggling world. We witness attacks in Orlando, Dallas, Paris, and London and we fear for our safety. We fear for our jobs. We are anxious about the influence of friends on our children. Often our hearts break with the disappointments in life. Our hearts are filled with doubt and our faith is challenged. Will God intervene? Does He still care? We are experiencing spiritual vertigo.

Physical vertigo is a condition where your brain cannot process what your eyes see. Spiritual vertigo happens when our faith cannot process what we see, hear, or experience. We become spiritually disconnected, off balance, and doubt our faith in God. What are the causes of spiritual vertigo?

1. Self-dependence. We have been taught to believe in ourselves, but what happens when the circumstances of life go beyond our talent, intellect or skills? We turn to God, but we are not in the habit of depending on Him. How do we pray? How do we express faith in Him in a crisis? When our children face problems or trouble, when finances are tight, when we face physical afflictions, it is difficult for us to change gears. It is foreign to us to depend on Christ. The key is to humble ourselves before the Lord. Colossians 2:6 says, “Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him.” How did we receive Christ? We humbled ourselves at the cross, realizing that we can do nothing to save ourselves. We depend totally on Christ to save us from our sins. Now, as believers, we need to humble ourselves at the feet of Christ every day, depend on Him and receive daily grace.

2. Expectations of God. We have a tendency to map out our lives, at least subconsciously. If life deviates from what we expect, we perceive God has let us down. When we have this outlook we are really saying that we know what is best for our lives. We have dreams and plans of living a certain lifestyle—a good job, plenty of money, ample free time, happy children, good health, and success. When our plans do not work out, we think God has let us down. The question is—who is in charge of your life? Who is really on the throne?

3. Misunderstanding faith. Archie Bunker once said, “Faith is believing what nobody would believe if it were not in the Bible.” When tragedy strikes our friends tell us, “Just trust God.” What does that mean? Have your friends ever experienced real problems? Sometimes we think that if we want something enough and just believe, God will deliver. It’s like we are treating God as a genie and how much we desire is the criteria for receiving. Faith, however, is simply trusting God and His Word. If God has not revealed anything through His Word or in your heart, there is no promise to claim. In order to know God’s promises and have our faith grown, we must study the Bible. “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.” (Romans 10:17) then claim the promises of God.

Join me next week for the remaining four reasons we struggle with spiritual vertigo.