Yesterday, we considered the challenge of overcoming negative sources of spiritual gravity holding us back from living an adventurous life with Jesus. In order to break free from the pull of these strongholds, we must first identify them. While the list could be quite long, here are seven common sources of negative spiritual gravity:

1. Familiarity

This is the one, as a pastor, I encounter most frequently. It usually expresses itself in one of two ways, either, “We’ve never done it that way before,” or “We’ve always done it this way.” Both are ways of articulating the deeper meaning, “This is what I know, and I am afraid of change.” This is understandable. With all of its challenges and problems, what we know is familiar. We know what to expect. Making changes may lead to something better, but how can we be sure? What if the change turns out to be bad? Staying with what we already know, feels much more secure, therefore, we resist letting go.

2. Past Failure

Maybe we tried something new in the past and it didn’t work, or maybe we saw someone else fail when they tried to break free, but the fear of failure is powerful, especially when we’ve experienced it before. Someone breaks our trust and we easily pull back from trusting in the future. We try a new business venture and it doesn’t work out so we squelch our entrepreneurial spirit. An attempt to live by faith seems to come with more struggles, making it easier to settle for a more “reasonable” understanding of faith. When things go bad, we become far less likely to try new things in the future.

3. Past Success

Ironically, when things go well in our past, it can also inhibit stepping out in faith. Why fix something that isn’t broken, or, why not just do what worked before? I often hear it expressed this way, “The church I went to when I was younger did it this way and it worked.” That is probably very true, and it may even be the right choice for us today, but the assumption is, it worked well enough in the past, it should still work in the future. So, instead of asking God how we should move forward, we take our direction from past success. It happens in churches, but it also happens in our personal lives as we keep trying to do what worked well the last time we tried, often leaving us stuck in the past instead of moving into our future.

4. Perceived Safety

Sometimes, we believe that we are safer where we are, than we would be doing something new. Certainly, this can be the case, but many times we convince ourselves that we are safer inside our sinking ship than we would be risking the open water in a life raft. We insulate ourselves from the realities of our circumstances to reinforce that belief, but the situation is actually no different. We feel safe, but we can be more at risk than we know.

5. Negativity

“That will never work!” Many of us are conditioned to think negatively. We start our evaluations looking for, and accentuating, all the possible concerns. When asked to list the “pros” and “cons” of an action or decision, we begin with the “cons,” and easily find more items for that list. Instead of seeing possibilities, we see problems, and we let that worldview shape our decision. One of the great dangers of this source of negative gravity is the more we feed it, the more dominant it becomes. As we search for, and speak, negativity, we train our minds and our spirits to think this way and thus, it becomes easier to find and say even more discouraging things, sapping our strength to move forward. Like adding weight and resistance to the rocket we are trying to launch, we sabotage ourselves at the outset.

6. Lack of Faith

I know, saying, “you don’t have enough faith,” is often used as a tool to beat people up, but Jesus spoke it frequently, not as a condemnation, but as an honest assessment and an invitation to think differently. Without faith, it is outrageously difficult to embrace new things, or to step into a new stage of our destiny. In many ways, faith is the fuel we burn to create the energy for upward momentum. The more faith we have in our tank, the easier it is for us to achieve liftoff and begin to soar where Christ has led.

7. A Controlling Spirit

Admit it, sometimes life feel wildly out of control. The more chaotic things feel, the more we try to control them. I recently discovered this was a growing problem for me. Over the last year, a number of things happened to reinforce the lack of control I actually possessed over many circumstances. During some recent prayer and reflection, I became aware at how much I was trying to find order through my own ability to control my circumstances. Of course, this control was just an illusion, and all I managed to do was create large amounts of stress in my life. Yes, things are often in chaos, but the good news is that God does some of the greatest work in chaos, and speaks order in the midst of it. Attempting to control things only restricts us from releasing our circumstances to God and embracing God’s power to walk through the storm together.

Maybe you find yourself wrestling with some of these issues, and maybe, they point to some other strong sources of gravity holding you back in your personal journey. Take heart, Jesus overcame the world, and he can help you overcome every stronghold that is holding you back.

In my next post, we will discover how to break free and soar. To do that, we need to know what is holding us back, and trust the One who is calling us forward.

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There are numerous voices that attempt to speak into our thoughts and lives every day. Some speak blessing and hope, while others curses and fear. Some come with words of life, while others invoke words of death. The saddest part of all is that many of the voices of negativity come from within the body of Christ. It is as if the spirit of Chicken Little has taken the place of the Spirit of God.

Don’t get me wrong, there are things in our lives and in the world around us that should matter to us and there are times when we must speak a hard word to create a greater good. However, the children of the Most High God should not be sowing fear, hostility and death. We’ve received the words of life, from the One who came that we, “might have life and have it to the full.” (John 10:10) and we should be speaking them into a world drowning in negativity and death.

It was Jesus himself who told us, “Do not worry about your life…” (Matthew 6:25) It was a call and command rooted in faith; in the belief that God was able to fulfill his word and order our steps by it. Later, the Apostle Paul would tell his disciple Timothy, “God did not give us a spirit of fear, but a spirit of power, and of love, and of self-discipline.” (2 Timothy 1:7) God did not give us the Holy Spirit so we could perpetuate the fears of the world. Rather, we were given the power and love to make a kingdom difference. Might it be that the self-discipline mentioned in this passage was the discipline of keeping our heads in the face of adversity, or keeping our focus on Christ, when the voices around us are crying out for us to join them in their anxiety and fear?

There is more than enough political drama, more than enough relational drama and, dare we say, more than enough church drama. Maybe it is time for us to represent Christ, who did not waste his time running around frightening people with Caesar’s latest decision, or the latest bad news in the city, or even the latest gossip heard at the temple. Jesus used his time to bless others, to bring healing, and to invite his listeners to experience life. Isn’t it time for us to do the same?

Before his crucifixion, Jesus said he was giving his followers his peace. That can be our peace, even in time of chaos. And how can we forget Jesus’ words, “In this life you will have troubles, but take heart, I have overcome the world!” (John 6:33)

May you have peace, keep peace, and speak peace in Jesus Name.

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