The Upward Spiral

How many times have we felt like we live our lives from one spiritual high to the next? At times touching the heart of God, and other times living for ourselves?

There are times we have moments of clarity, revival conferences, church camps, or just fantastic mornings. In these times, we feel that nothing can beat us, but then troubles of the world come back and we fall. Soon enough, we find ourselves back in our old ways sinning. That gets us down so we sin again, and around and around it goes. Finally, in desperation we cry out for God. He lifts us up, brushes us off, and sets us up on solid ground, but we then continue to fall.

It’s the downward spiral that is the spiritual walk for so many Christians.

Gods love keeps picking us up even though we then continue to plummet back down, but my friends, this is not His plan for us. He has so much more.

The problem with this way of living is that there is no guidance, no ownership, and no action to stop the downward spiral. When there is no action, we continue to fall.

Why?

Because when God picks us up, he fixes the effect of our sin without solving our desire for sin. We feel relieved and are thankful for the rest, but so often we take this rest as a personal victory and decide that we are no longer in danger, but this is the opposite of the truth.

In these moments of grace, there is an obligation for us to fight, not rest.

These temporary gifts of clarity are for us to see how much better life is outside the mud, but freedom without action is meaningless. Just like a prisoner who had the doors open for him, we need to make the best of these spiritual highs, and use them to cut off the things dragging us away from God.

When we cut off our bonds, the true lasting joy comes to invigorate us to continue fighting. If we fight for intimacy in times we feel good, then we will gain the momentum to keep drawing closer in times of trouble. Soon enough, when the high wears off and we find ourselves faced with adversity, we will realize that instead of falling, we changed our course and are now starting to rise.

This is the upward spiral that God desires us to live in.

My friends, let us be encouraged to accept Gods grace and strength to use these moments of grace to cut off the things that pull us down. Let us be invigorated so we can experience the upward spiral as a constant in our Christian walk.