It can be said that history is a cycle of cycles.
For example, God’s people, the Israelites, repetitively sinned, suffered the consequences, called out to God for help, were delivered from their troubles, sinned again, and so on. This continued from the time they entered the promised land until they finally were defeated by enemy world powers.
Another example is the life of an individual person of God. Paul the Apostle wrote in Romans (chapter 7) that he, as a typical human in a struggle with his own ungodly desires, found himself in a cyclical life of defeat, unable over and over to do the Godly things he wanted to do.
My life history, as I imagine yours is, is another example of unwanted cycles. Like Paul, I repeatedly disappoint myself.
It’s well known and well documented that the patterns flow with powerful current from one generation to the next. Whether passed on through genetics or environment, parents’ poor habits and negative behaviors continue through the succession of children, grandchildren and their children, and their children.
It seems unstoppable, this rolling of undesirable choices and actions. But the good news is that there is a solution. There is evidence that this solution actually works. It – or should we say, He – demonstrates over and over that destructive patterns can be interrupted and replaced with productive ones.
The solution, of course, is Jesus.
What finally reversed the sin patterns of God’s chosen people? The coming of the Messiah.
What was the answer to Paul’s Romans 7 question “Who will deliver me from this body of death?” “I thank God,” he replied to himself, “through Jesus Christ our Lord!”
How did the generations of anger and violence that ran through my ancestral lineage finally grind to a halt? By God giving me faith to believe in His Son.
And how will women stop choosing the men who abuse them? How can people stop turning to substances that destroy their lives, materialism that leaves them empty, lies that lead them nowhere?
Praise God! It’s by turning to Jesus
I can’t say that all my behavior has been corrected, but it isn’t because the power of Christ is insufficient; it’s because I haven’t always taken advantage of the power He’s put in me.
Breaking these cycles ultimately comes down to one thing: turning to Jesus by faith. Every time we do that victory and success will be ours.
God, please activate in us a new cycle of turning, over and over, to You for help!