1. Busyness.
2. Illness, isolation, discouragement - all can cause a loss of perspective.
3. Trouble - financial pressure, business trouble.
4. Conflict - in marriage or conflict with friends.
5. Prosperity - more option; the tendency is often toward idleness.
6. Picking up someone else's offense. (The original people resolve their problem, but I, an outsider, still hold bitterness toward the person who has offended my friend.)
7. Controversy - theological controversy and debate, with no normal accountability structure.
8. Loneliness - Especially for singles - God has a best for you in a relationship. Don't accept 'good enough.'
9. Return of old habits - resuming something that was representative of your life before Christ (e.g. drinking, clubbing, etc.).
10. Worldly saturation - TV, movies, internet - becoming infatuated with the personalities and world views of our society's stars.
11. Compromise - a pattern of downward spiral.
12. Disobedience - self-willed knowing "I know that I should but..." soon becomes comfortable with disobedience.
13. Sarcasm, arrogance, negative, critical, humor at the expense of someone, judgmental.
14. Carelessness - priorities get rearranged; reading the Bible and prayer get left out.
Those are the points in brief as I wrote them in my notes. Of course he expanded on each one. If you'd like to hear his whole talk, it's here.
Can you relate to any of these? (I know I can - even to most of them to some extent.) What additional items could be on the list?
