Vicious cycles! We all have them. This year I saw these cycles more clearly. I would ask God, "WHY OH WHY (yes that dramatically!) do I come back to the same place?" And God would say, "Because you haven't changed." Ouch! But oh so true! Reminds me of a song by Donna Lasit that says, "I don't want to live for my own selfish gain, in endless cycles of my sin..."
Why do we fall in the same place? Why do we sin in the same way? The reason is because we are still the same people. I love what John Piper says, "We must remove the false understanding that says that a person can be saved without being changed." We continue living in these vicious cycles because we haven't changed. But let's remember that everyone who comes to Christ becomes "a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!" (2 Cor. 5:17). That "new life" means we are no longer the same people we used to be. We have moved! When the vicious cycle comes, it will no longer find us, because we have a new address! We no longer live in the address of sin, we live in the address of forgiven, redeemed, and changed! (Can I hear an amen!?)
God taught me this specifically one time when I was feeling like going back to a vicious cycle. "You need to change," my beautiful God whispered. "Ahhhhhh!!!" I said with desperation. "You can do it," he said. "Okay my God I will change." I remember telling my family, "I'm battling with something right now, but I will overcome it." And God strengthened me through it all. He lifted up my head. He was with me. And He gave me victory.
Get ready for this...Are you ready?! God's powerful Word says, "For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him" (Phil. 2:13). So it IS possible. God won't only give us the desire to change but he will give us the power to change! To change to do what pleases him! So for 2013, let's remember this always. When the vicious cycle wants to come back, let's remember that we can break it by changing our minds and our hearts.
:)
KT
Amen. Good word, sister. An encouraging and challenging reminder; both loving and exhorting--'double edged' one could say.
ReplyDeleteThank you.
I have to admit this topic is still a bit tough for me as it touches on the "once saved always saved?" debate. If you look it up online different debates will cite stuff from all over the new testament, but where I feel conviction stabbing at my heart is the First Letter of John. (The Apostle of Love shared these loving/exhorting words.)
ReplyDelete1 John 2:9-11 talks about how if we walk around hating our brother we are walking in darkness (paraphrase). Thus, if we are not quick to forgive we are at high risk of stumbling. But, it gets worse in the end of that chapter building up to Chapter 3 it says: "No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him," (verse 6). This is terrifying as one who knows what it is to walk with, and also without God. Being without him is dangerous: stumbling in the in the dark you can get hurt--wounds may take a long time to heal--as a result one can get bound up in cycles of sin... once in a vicious cycle if one doesn't wonder if salvation can be lost, one might fearfully ask oneself "was I ever saved?"
And so that terror drives me to my knees and to Philippians 2:12 to "work out my salvation with fear and trembling..." and maybe that is not a bad place to start, if after all: "The beginning of wisdom is the fear of God..." (Psalms 9:10 & 111:10). Somehow our vertical love to God correlates with our horizontal love to our neighbor. Love can be a powerful positive motivator, and so also can fear be.
Thank you again for the encouraging reminder.