Mental Cycles

By admin

 ”When you accept the thought that outside circumstances must change before you can feel differently then you are locked into a never-ending cycle. You become a lifetime runner, you run from responsibilities, relationships, circumstances and you run from the very thing that will make a difference in your life; the renewal of your mind “

-Creflo Dollar 

The above excerpt is from one of my favorite messages, one that I listen to consistently on a weekly basis. The teaching is entitled; “Changing your mental net worth”, a great message of introspection and location of our spirit minds well being. It’s actually quite simple, bad decisions yield bad fruit (consequences), good decisions yield good fruit (consequences), then going past the symptoms of fruit to the root of our situations; mental treasure contrary to the truth of God’s word. I was awakened at 3:00 in the morning to help a family member that got themselves into a dilemma, involving the police. After I helped them it just occurred to me how much I have had to consistently help them since childhood with the same issues and now they are physically an adult ( yet not mentally).

As I attempted to fall back asleep I kinda mulled over the concept of how people create these mental cycles that are destructive to their life and character growth. As is my custom I grabbed my laptop to relieve these mental ramblings bouncing off the walls of my mind I have always been utterly intrigued by the mind; basic human psychology and the spiritual. Aforementioned the latter usually sets the foundation for the former, also with proper inspection we can all examine the content of our mental inventory and find error. One of the most important  factors in the entire process of examination though is choosing to change what is in error. However, the only way to properly weigh thoughts that pose a threat to our growth is to have an established standard to judge by. And that is undeniably the word of God and the truths extracted by God’s spirit. So, back to the topic of cycles. You ever find yourself bailing someone out of a situation they seem to consistently repeat? Or even better yet, searching for the wood in your own eye and seeing where you have consistently made the same mistakes. I remember having an issue that seemed to repeat itself in my life. In the midst of this trial I remember when it dawned on me, “If I cry out to God to simply change the situation and fix it next time around, I’ll still need it fixed!”. At that moment I realized instead of going back around the mountain to come back to the same spot I’d rather have the solution ingrained inside of me instead of constantly crying out to God to fix it. I’d rather discover why I have the issue and adjust “me” because that is the best thing I can do.

Then the Lord said to me, ”You have made your way around this hill country long enough; now turn north. (Deuteronomy 2:2,3)

Many times we feel if the situation could change then we will be okay and this concept in itself is a bit of an error. A good example would be a recent experience I just had with my Older sibling. He came to me for assistance in obtaining money to move into a new apartment. In his proposal he asked me to take out a title loan for him and he needed the money to help him pay for prior debt in order to move forward. I didn’t immediately bat down his proposal but I simply reasoned with him as logically as possible. I asked, “what got you into this position?”, “have you taken out a loan like this before?”, and a host of other questions. After he had answered the questions I posed to him, all of a sudden he began to see where I was leading him to. Thus I explain to him the the dilemma of his thinking and how it had brought him back into this situation again. He had created a mental cycle that said “in tight financial times I have to borrow to get ahead.” Don’t get me wrong there are substantial situations where people need help. However sometimes a bailout (hint, hint) is the last thing someone needs, when the actual problem resides in their mind. The error is in a constructed mindset that never truly propels them through the situation. I shared with my brother some money saving and budgeting tips I extracted from my Dave Ramsey books. Then I explained to him the importance of evaluating and changing his mental inventory through trusting in God and being more wise with his money. My proposal will certainly be harder and its certainly not as quick as the loan, but it will yield greater and sustainable results.

The above example is one of many, maybe your struggle isn’t with money, maybe its relationships, or something else. Another great example in the teaching is that pertaining to marriage, in the event a couple is contemplating divorce. One mate says, “I just need to get away and things will be better!” The person who states such a thing simply reveals they have established a mode of thinking if they just leave a situation it will be better, when we all know that won’t change the situation. The biggest change in the situation is for you to change “you” first, because you’ll end up in the same situation. That same mate will end up in a new marriage and when things get tough they attempt to run and get away once again just like the first marriage, never finding resolve. Thus, Creflo states “No matter how far you run, you can never outrun “you”, cause everywhere you go there “you” are

The point is before we persistently implore and cry a river to God to change the situation we should check our surroundings, then asks ourselves, “wait haven’t I been here before?” Once we realize the situation is familiar we should inspect the contents of our memory banks and hearts to see the approach we’ve consistently taken in that situation. Next we need to ask ourselves, “did my approach last time truly bring a sustainable solution or did I simply adapt a band-aid/half-resolving approach to my mess?” The following step is to be honest with yourself and to look into God’s perfect  law to weigh that mindset in the balance of his precepts. Hence if our mindsets are found to be in error we simply change and renew our mind to the conformity to His word, sound familiar right?

“And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” (Romans 12:2)

This my friends is a way to break the cycles of thinking that are contrary to God’s word. Many times such mentalities are simply a product of our experiences overtime, societal norms and many other things we consistently feed on. So, if you have time sit down and just take inventory of what has been fed into your memory bank and how you go about fixing things that seem to consistently pop up. Proceed with repentance and ask God to reveal the right approached and let that truth make you free.