Ep 761 • "Breaking Out of The Cycle of Failure"

Words of Encouragement, Tues Mar 18, 2025

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Change vs. Same-ness
Change is painful, but so is staying the same. Until the pain of staying the same becomes greater than the pain of changing, people choose to stay the same. Desperate times call for desperate measures. Radical problems necessitate radical solutions.

Commitment vs. Doing
Making a commitment to do the radical thing is the simple part. It doesn't take much to bolster up your faith and conviction and say, "I will do this." The hard part comes when we have to follow through. In other words, talk is cheap. The doing part, and the continued doing part, is where the pain comes.

Resolution vs. Revolution
We tend to make resolutions and then not follow through. This is part of our fallen human nature. Every year, at the beginning of a new year, people make resolutions to do things differently. The problem is that within a couple of weeks, those once sincere, strong resolutions tend to dissipate. Revolution comes with ongoing, consistent change, not temporary commitments to change.

Quitters Friday
Believe it or not, this apparent inability to follow through is so predictable that data analysis has narrowed it down to a specific day. In the fitness industry, where decisions to work out and get healthy are made every New Year's, the second Friday of January has been termed "Quitters Day." Not the nicest sounding phrase, but nevertheless true. Within only two weeks of making a hard and fast commitment, many people have backed off from their commitment.

7 Habits
There's a popular book, with over 40 million copies sold, entitled "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" by Stephen Covey. As Christians, we sometimes ignore our own responsibility and put it all on God. The most effective means for change is not one or the other; it's both.

Get a Plan
There's an old saying: "People don't plan to fail; they simply fail to plan." There's much truth in this. It's rare for someone to build a house without creating a set of plans to do it. Whatever goal you have in mind, there's a pathway to that goal. Don't underestimate the value of making a plan, seeking advice, and getting other people involved.

Write the Vision
Written-down plans have the way of helping you keep on track. The "Quitters Friday" we spoke about can lose much of its power when we have a written-down plan with specific goals in mind. A plan is a recorded vision. If you have a vision to do something, write it down. Even the Bible says that! God said in Habakkuk 2:2, "Write the vision and make it plain..."

Ask for Help
Finally, get over yourself. Stop thinking of yourself as some kind of Superman or an island that needs no assistance. If you didn't need help, you would have accomplished your goal already. One of the most overlooked necessities of any victory is the need for others to help you stay on track and hold you accountable when you fall off the wagon.

Partnership in Accountability
One of the most successful components of the Alcoholics Anonymous 12-step program is the idea of partnership in accountability. Without that, the chances of your failing are greatly increased. With it, the chances of your eventual success are greatly increased.

God's Strength
God wants this for you, and all likelihood, He wants this more than you do. Unless your goal is something destructive or wicked, God is on board with you, and He is your biggest advocate! He won't do it for you, but He will do it with you. The Holy Spirit is not called the doer, but the helper.

Rejoice in Weakness
The Apostle Paul actually rejoiced in his personal weakness. Not because he thought his weakness would take him down or he would be hopeless and never be able to change. Just the opposite! He rejoiced in God's strength, knowing it happened. He was fully aware that where his weakness brought his abilities to an end, God would step in.

God's Grace
In other words, if you have to go from zero to 100, and you can only go to 30 or 40 in your own strength, God steps in at that point and takes you to 100. Think of someone trying to bench press 350 pounds, and the most that person has ever bench-pressed is 200 pounds. God's grace is like the spotter who stands behind the bench press and, when that person's efforts fail for lack of strength, the spotter puts his hands on the bar and lifts it the rest of the way.

God's Partnership
That's God's grace – power assist! Very simply put, God adds His strength to yours. It's not all Him; it's not all you. It's both. It's partnership. That's how He likes to work. Quite literally, He adds His strength to yours, so that you can do what you would not normally be able to do.

That, my friend, is the grace of God – His ability working in you, through you, adding to your limited strength to make it possible. With God, it says all things are possible. And that is the truth.

The Apostle Paul's Confession (II Corinthians 12:9-10) says:

"And He [the Lord] said to me [Paul]: 'My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore, most gladly I [Paul] will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong."

The great Apostle wasn't declaring that his weakness was keeping him from achieving his lifelong goals. He was declaring that he knew the answer lay in God adding His strength to Paul's weakness.

This is perhaps the most important aspect of all: what you believe. You cannot accomplish something you do not believe you can accomplish. If you believe it's impossible (even though it isn't), it becomes impossible to you. You are ultimately a by-product of what you believe.

If you believe that your goals are achievable because God is with you, the likelihood is that you will achieve those goals.

Thanks for listening.

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Jim