Breaking the Cycle - Step 1

As Christians our desire is to do the will of God. Yet sometimes, like Paul, we find ourselves being able to say like he said in Rom 7:19 “For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.” Worse than this is the fact that sometimes we can find ourselves in a cycle of behaviour, repeating the same mistakes over and over again. I’m not just talking about what some may call ‘big’ mistakes like stealing, fornication, adultery but we must remember that it is the ‘little foxes’ that spoil the vine; the gossiping, the murmuring and complaining. These can keep us from living victoriously and being who God wants us to be. The following deals with how we can break this cycle and get into that place of victory that the Lord would have us to be in.

Step 1: Acknowledge your transgression or weakness (Ps 51:3)

The first step to overcoming any problem is to acknowledge that you do have a problem. Unfortunately, this does not seem to come naturally to us.

When Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden their first instinct when they heard the voice of God was to hide (Genesis 3:6-8).

King David, when he heard that Bathsheba was pregnant the first thing he tried to do was hide it by trying to deceive Uriah, Bathsheba’s husband, into thinking that the child was his. When this did not work he sent Uriah into battle to be killed. (2 Samuel 11:14-15). David did not acknowledge his sin until after the baby was born, approximately 9 months later when the prophet Nathan confronted him.

The consequence of not acknowledging our sins and weaknesses is that we either continue in them or they may lead to further deception of ourselves and others. When we admit our sins/weaknesses then we can deal with them.

We should expose ourselves to others otherwise God may expose us. James 5:16 encourages us to confess our faults one to another that we may be healed. There is power in confession.