Breaking cycles is like fighting a battle. It’s a battle for your heart, mind, present, and, mostly, your future. You might be thinking, “Duh, I’m lying bruised and bleeding on the field and every time I get up, I get knocked down.”
Yes. It feels like that. It feels like loss and after loss. And it feels like you carry the losing banner everywhere you go.
Breaking cycles and patterns of thought sometimes feels like you lose more than you win because it’s a series of small skirmishes amidst decisive battles.
But we’re not alone. We might be surrounded by the enemies of our pasts or our own imaginations, but God says he prepares a table, a feast for us, in the midst of our enemies. He invites us to rest and in the respite we’re given the strength to stand and fight again.
The Psalmist describes God as a warrior riding the clouds in response to your cry. Psalm 18.
The breaking cycles weapons are not a pick yourself up by your bootstraps and keep a stiff upper lip and all that rot. It’s so much more.
Our weapons are the power of a heart fixed on the power of God. They’re spiritual weapons that enable you to tear down any thought, imagination, or mind-stronghold so that God’s truth can penetrate your heart.
The cycles and negative thought patterns begin before we’re even aware of what’s happening in our minds. It’s called a cycle because it’s become an automatic response. This is why one of the breaking cycle steps involve awareness of what’s in our minds. One way to interrupt the patterns of thoughts is by using your spiritual weapons to tear down thoughts and imaginings that don’t line up with God’s truth.
How do we do this?
We pray scripture.
We pray:
“In Jesus name, I tear down the pride that’s creating this stronghold.”
Or:
“According to Jesus’ power, I tear down the idea that someone is spreading rumors about me.”
Listen, we walk and live in the flesh. We live in this world. We still have the effects of our past in our present. Yet, we’re also not of this world. This world is not our home, but this is where we live.
What would happen if we were to apply the benefits of being a citizen of heaven to our life in this world?
Wouldn’t we reach for heavenly weapons rather than for our usual way of dealing with problems that plague our minds?
Couldn’t we share the power of God with others by applying the power of God to our own minds and praying for other’s who are locked into patterns of thought that keep them trapped in strongholds?
“For though we walk in the flesh (driven by our natural responses), we are not waging war according to the flesh (self-preservation). For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh (revenge, back-biting, vindication), but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ.” 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 (parentheses, my addition)
Jesus is our High Priest. He intercedes for us. And it’s because of him that God sees us as holy and righteous and it’s because of him that we can go directly to God and receive the grace that we need in the exact moment we need it. Hebrews 4:12-16.
There is a light that flows out like a river from God. He invites you to step into it, arms thrown back, and let that light overtake every single aspect of your mind and heart. It’s in that position where strongholds tumble.
It’s a battle of which you’re assured victory. You might feel as though you’re losing more than you’re winning, but you win when you’re faithful. I heard a best-selling author assert that your successes are built on your failures, but I proclaim that your successes are built on faithfulness.
It’s your faithfulness in trusting God and his faithfulness in directing every one of your steps while you’re breaking cycles.
The Takeaway
Prepare your heart for the battle by studying the Armor of God. I recommend Priscilla Shirer’s Armor of God study.
Think of a situation that sets your mind to setting up strongholds because of false imaginations and then pray 2 Corinthians 10:3-5. Out loud. And name what’s keeping you bound. Speak to it in Jesus’ name.
Take time to rest in God’s abundant love for you. That’s where you find your strength to stand and fight the battle.
It’s a commodity that seems to cost us more than it gives back. But rest is vital for our well-being. It shouldn’t induce guilt or shame, and yet, how many of us struggle with it?
There are times when I need a nap in the middle of the day, and if I’m honest, sometimes by 9am. I struggle to pause my activity so I can close my eyes for ten minutes. But when I don’t, I turn into scary Jessica. That’s the version of me that shows her teeth and and growls at anyone who comes near, including innocent laundry baskets and errant socks.
We need physical rest, but we also need spiritual and emotional rest as well. We need stillness.
Our bodies are still, and our minds are at rest. We’re given a break from the constant bombardment from noise, and our senses are soothed by the sight of lapping waters, the scent of earth and leaves, and the cooing of mourning doves.
God’s word is filled with visions of stillness. He leads you besides still waters so that your soul finds restoration. And he calls us to be still and wait for him to lead. Would that we could be as restful in the midst of our life’s storms as Jesus was when he napped in the boat during the violent storm on the Galilee Sea.
Still.
Breathe deep.
Embrace the quiet.
Stilling our soul is vital to breaking cycles.
For one, it enables us to learn to rely on the power of the Holy Spirit to work in us and through us. God knows our tendency to strive in our own strength, and so he gives us the gift of stillness so that we learn to wait for him.
Secondly, stillness gives us the opportunity to practice the presence of God. God’s presence doesn’t ebb and flow, but our awareness of it does. Stilling our soul gives us the opportunity to develop that awareness.
But what does this stillness look like?
It can be meditating on a passage of scripture that gives you hope or comfort or turning on worship music that sings of God’s attributes and character. And then turn those words into your own worship. Laying prostrate on the floor is an act of humility that reminds our soul that God is God and we are not.
You could take a leisurely stroll and study the leaves on the maple tree, the flowers that bloom or the way the goldfinch flits and flutters to its nest. Maybe you could lay on the grass, gaze at the clouds, and envision God riding to your rescue.
God loves you and longs for relationship with you that is filled with mutual enjoyment.
Yes, God teaches us in the ways of right living and he gently and tenderly convicts us when we travel off course. But he also enjoys us. He enjoys our quirks and interests because he gives them to us.
Enjoy him. Enjoy his kindness, sweetness, mercy, and grace. He is a good, good God and his heart is so good towards you.
He transforms you one step in one cycle at the time, but not every encounter with God will be a teaching encounter. There will be times when he removes the blinders off your eyes, and you will see clearly and change will overtake you.
Then, God graciously let’s those revelations take root in your heart, which means that you won’t be showed something new to work on every time you open your Bible. It’s in those moments when you read the Bible, worship him, and still your heart before him that you learn to enjoy him.
“Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” Psalm 46:10
Breaking cycles requires a strong heart. Sometimes it seems impossible and we wonder if the effort is worth it. That’s why this step of rest cannot be skipped or glossed over.
Taking time to rest in God’s presence is what encourages our heart and gives us strength to keep walking the righteous-living, cycle-breaking road.
The Takeaway
Take time to quiet your soul and rest in God’s presence.
I’m amazed at how negative my thoughts can be sometimes. Before I know it, I’ve tried and quartered the person that seems more like an enemy than a friend. Or I’ve embraced despair over a situation. Or I’ve declared there’s no hope for so and so.
And then there’s this classic move: planned out conversations that work perfectly in my mind and fail spectacularly in person because, doh, the person is a real person and not a character in my script.
And sometimes my thoughts aren’t so nice and would totally require major cleanup and brown-nosing for the rest of my life, thank-you very much.
It’s in those moments when I consider that my secret thoughts aren’t really secret after all. God knows the secrets of my heart and I know that I can go to him, not for justification of my bad thoughts, but for help in sorting through them.
Angry thoughts hide hurt feelings. Hurts slices our core needs: to feel safe, validated, and loved. Instead of dealing with the pain of abandonment, we grow angry and seek retaliation or exhibit desperation. Rejection tugs on the basic need to be accepted and rather than deal with the deep wound it causes, we turn to angry thoughts.
(Why is it that we have anger management classes, but not hurt-management classes? Because anger makes us appear strong, and hurt causes us to appear weak. Hurt is multi-faceted and many-layered, and can take years of deliberate choices in order to heal, but dealing with our hurts is what makes us stronger.)
Another thought that motivates me in cleaning up my thought life is the verse where it talks about what is done in the dark will be brought to the light. Yikes. I don’t know about you, but I’ve had some thoughts I don’t even want to admit I’ve had. But what’s in the dark, must be exposed to the light in order to be healed.
So, what are you thinking? Truly. Bring all your thoughts into the light. Oh, sure, they’ll squeal and you might squirm when you hear yourself, but trust me, it’s best if you can bring them to God. It’s like you bringing your broken treasure to him in cupped hands and like a child state, “I’m sorry. I don’t know what to do. Help.”
We fly through life. While we’re sorting the laundry, we’re sorting a relationship problem. In one instance, we answer our kids, that text, and our husbands. We juggle work projects and people projects and church dissension and personal growth issues and pretty soon, we push the auto-pilot button and say, like Batman in the Lego Batman movie, “Rope, you’re in charge.”
Auto-pilot. I’ve been there. I’m there more often than I admit. With three kids in school, managing our days, our home, church responsibilities, my writing studio project, and ministry, my mind is a busy, busy place. I can be sitting still, but my mind is leaping and turning and diving and solving and brainstorming.
I turn on auto-pilot and it’s when I do that the thoughts I think in secret get spoken. Chagrined? Yes. Dismayed? Oh, yea. Embarrassed? Absolutely. Needing to bring all the broken pieces to God? No doubt.
Am I saying that we can’t ever mess up? Not at all. What I am saying is that our thoughts are one of the most important commodities we possess. They affect our lives for good or for evil because it’s in our thoughts that temptations give birth to sin.
Our thoughts are merely unspoken words. And when we dive into God’s words about the power of words, we see the importance of guarding our hearts so that our minds might be renewed in order for the thoughts we think to become the life-giving words we want to say.
Friends, we don’t change from the outside in. We change from the inside out. One of the things I don’t do for my family is clean out their pockets before I wash their clothes. I probably should because I have washed wallets, chapstick, crayons, gum, hair ties, legos, screws, and keys, but I’m afraid of what I’m going to find in the dark recesses of their pockets.
Let’s not be like that with our minds. God knows our thoughts anyway, so let’s ask him to help us be aware of our thoughts so our words can be life-giving. So let’s reach into that pocket and turn it inside out. Get rid of the fuzz and lint and ask God to make your mind new.
The Takeaway
In order for negative cycles to be broken, we need to begin in our hearts and what’s in our hearts is evidenced by the words we think and say.
Pay attention to what you’re thinking and talk to God about it.
Scripture to Ponder
“Would not God have discovered it, since he knows the secrets of the heart.” Psalm 44:21
“There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the roofs.” Luke 12:2-3
“Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.” Proverbs 4:23
