{"id":776,"date":"2016-02-25T03:38:26","date_gmt":"2016-02-25T03:38:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theprodigalpig.com\/?p=776"},"modified":"2016-02-25T13:04:45","modified_gmt":"2016-02-25T13:04:45","slug":"never-ending-cycle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.theprodigalpig.com\/?p=776","title":{"rendered":"Never Ending Cycle"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"05-28-15<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Me:\u00a0 Prodigal what are you doing on that?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Prodigal:\u00a0 Well I started on this path and thought I could quickly be done with this, but I find myself unable to get down and keep following these crazy cycles over and over again.\u00a0 I am getting tired.\u00a0 What should I do at this point?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Me:\u00a0 Stand completely still and I know a lot of us get on these crazy cycles and I will share with you maybe a way to finally stop.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Prodigal:\u00a0 Don’t worry I will not move at all while you are talking!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Gary and Lisa Heim talk about cycles in the book True North Choosing God in the Frustrations of Life.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The biggest obstacle to tasting and seeing that God is good is our foolish assumption that it is all up to us to make it happen.\u00a0 We so naturally try to live the Christian life in our own power that we don’t realize we are doing it.\u00a0 When we fail and go south, we just keep trying harder to do the right thing.\u00a0 We berate ourselves and work harder to stop grumbling and grasping.\u00a0 We think thoughts such as, I’m grumbling.\u00a0 Stop doing that!\u00a0 Or, I’m trying to get their approval again.\u00a0 Cut that out!\u00a0 I don’t need their approval.\u00a0 But we keep failing.\u00a0 We get discouraged and give up.\u00a0 Good grief.\u00a0 Who wants to live in this kind of cycle?\u00a0 While growth is most often a slow process, we’ll never know God by just trying harder.\u00a0 But relinquishing self-effort comes hard because by nature we’re proud and self-reliant.\u00a0 We hate feeling powerless and dependent.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The apostle Paul wrote, “Live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature”(Gal. 5:16). “Living by the Spirit” sounds so mysterious that we tend to gloss over Paul’s words.\u00a0 Or we assume that living by the Spirit means praying, having devotions, and trying to please God by doing what he tells us to do.\u00a0 We feel pretty good about ourselves when we manage to check those things off our Christian to-do list, and we feel a chronic, low-grade sense of guilt when we keep failing.\u00a0 Please tell me there’s more to the Christian life.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes, the Christian life does involve prayer, Bible study, and hard choices to stay faithful in tough times, but those things will not bear fruit.\u00a0 Christianity is not defined by choices but by affections.\u00a0 While true love for God is demonstrated by our obedience to what he tells us to do (Deut. 6-8; John 14:15), we make choices based on what we love and hold as supreme value.\u00a0 We will always choose what we value most.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is what is hard for me to express.\u00a0 I see these\u00a0Christians that God loves so much and they are stuck on a works cycle.\u00a0 They care more about the things, the approval, the position, how others see them.\u00a0\u00a0 When in reality they are too focused on this list, these boxes they have to check off.\u00a0 .\u00a0 It will come natural to us to make choices of obedience when God really is the most valuable relationship and possession in our heart.\u00a0 God is not fooled by your impressive check list and luke warm heart.\u00a0 He would rather you complete one box and have a heart that is passionate about who He is.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Hebrews 10:21-22<\/p>\n

And since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Jennifer Van Allen<\/p>\n

www.theprodigalpig.com<\/p>\n

www.faithincounseling.org<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Me:\u00a0 Prodigal what are you doing on that?   Prodigal:\u00a0 Well I started on this path and thought I could quickly be done with this, but I find myself unable to get down and keep following these crazy cycles over and over again.\u00a0 I am getting tired.\u00a0 What should I do at this point? … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nNever Ending Cycle - The Prodigal Pig<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/www.theprodigalpig.com\/?p=776\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Never Ending Cycle - 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