HOW TO OVERCOME SELF-IMPOSED NEGATIVE CYCLE
Some negative cycles in people’s lives are self-imposed. This happens through what they believe about themselves. Such beliefs come from what they have been taught while growing up or what they have observed in other people’s lives. It doesn’t matter how you got yours, you can still overcome it. You can break free from it even right now. The following steps will help you.
Identify the Cycle
The first step to overcoming or conquering anything is to know what it is you are up against. What is it that has formed a repeated pattern in your life? For my cousin, it was the belief that she never gets a big piece of meat whenever food is served in an occasion.
Some people have madness running in their family. Some are subject to a very depressing level of poverty. Others are chased about by demons of death and destruction. Some can’t keep money no matter how much they make. Some can’t keep jobs or relationships. Others suffer from a particular sickness at a particular season.
Be sure to identify what your own pattern is.
Question the Pattern
The second thing you need to do is to question the pattern. I don’t mean ‘God why me’ kind of question. That won’t lead you anywhere because you’re blaming God for your woes. Seriously ask questions like: How did this come into my life? Why am I bearing this cross? Where did it come from? Why is it not happening to other people around me? How and when did such pattern start in my life? What event started such pattern and what events or attitude feeds and nurtures it? These thought provoking questions will eventually lead to an answer.
I have seen this so often in the church-people going through serious negative ordeals yet unable to question why such pattern exists in their lives. When you make any attempt to get them to reason or ask questions, they simply reply that no one can question God. They will tell you that God does what He likes. The amount of emotional energy these individuals put into defending their situation is very baffling.
Well, my friend, God is not irrational; He is a good God. Evil doesn’t proceed from Him. More often than not, we suffer because we misinterpret His dealings in our lives. The Bible says that my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge,
Ask your friends and family members to help you look into such pattern in your life.
Find Out What the Word of God Says About Your Case
Knowledge is power. Information brings transformation. There is no situation in life that the word of God has not addressed. Whatever it is that human beings go through in life has been addressed by God in His word.
What does the word of God say about your case? More often than not, people suffer because they lack the knowledge of God’s word. They are stuck because they don’t know God’s opinion concerning their case. It is very important to know what God says about your case.
The devil hides under the ignorance of men to afflict them. What you don’t know is what is holding you to ransom. The moment you discover what God’s says, you are on your way to solving your problem.
The Bible says that God’s people are destroyed for lack of the knowledge of God’s word.
God wants you to be healed and enjoy good health.
Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth. 3John:2
That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses. Math. 8:17
God wants your marriage to be successful. He puts His favor and blessing upon the marriage institution
Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favour of the LORD. Prov. 18:22
I suffered for so many years for nothing. God had no hand in the lack that was ravaging my life. He didn’t ask me not to work. In fact, it is firmly established in His word that I am not permitted to eat if I refused to work. So, God was justly watching me suffer because I refused to do what His word says to do
When He created Adam back in the Garden of Eden, He gave him work to do before He even gave him a wife. God never created anyone to stay idle. Idleness is never God’s idea.
I know a lot of people who still hold such belief. They believe God doesn’t want them to work, yet they wallow in lack and poverty. Such individuals are always walking the streets with long faces, angry at everyone for not being sympathetic to their plight.
Well, if it is actually God who is responsible for your lack, then you shouldn’t be angry with other people, just enjoy the suffering and stop seeking a way out of it.
Some have even taken to a dishonest and undignified life style in an attempt to survive. The wrong idea they hold on to has continued to reproduce a cycle of poverty and lack around them. The lack has eventually turned them into dishonest men and women. They lie and play little pranks just to make ends meet.
Questioning will lead to more clarity. Find out why you have that seasonal pain, sickness, lack or whatever it is that keeps reoccurring in your life. Sometimes people can’t find any scientific or natural explanation to their repeated cycles. And sometimes you can’t even find a spiritual explanation to the problem. It is mainly self-imposed.
Here are some Bible passages to help you deal with such sicknesses and pains.
1 I am the Lord that healeth thee (Ex. 15:26).
You shall be buried in a good old age (Gen. 15:15).
You shall come to your grave in a full age like as a shock of corn cometh in its season (Job 5:26).
When I see the blood, I will pass over you and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you (Ex. 12:13).
I will take sickness away from the midst of you and the number of your days I will fulfill (Ex. 23:25, 26).
I will not put any of the diseases you are afraid of on you, but I will take all sickness away from you (Deut. 7:15).
It will be well with you and your days shall be multiplied and prolonged as the days of heaven upon the earth (Deut. 11:9, 21).
I turned the curse into a blessing unto you, because I loved you (Deut. 23:5 and Neh. 13:2).
9) I have redeemed you from every sickness and every plague (Deut. 28:61 and Gal. 3:13).
Change Your Thinking
You can’t change the way you live without changing the way you think. All I did in my case was changed my belief the moment I discovered that God doesn’t want me to be lazy and idle. The moment I changed what I had believed about myself, my life started to move forward
Change what you believe about yourself. If you are like my cousin who believed she was destined to receive small piece of meat at every occasion, start believing that now you can get big pieces of meat. Think of something good about your life.
Don’t say winter is coming when I usually get sick. Instead of imagining pain and sickness ravaging your body, think of a winter with something good for you. Instead of seeing yourself rejected at that interview you are planning to attend, see yourself coming out of it very bright. See yourself being admired instead rejected in that relationship. Shake yourself off of that victim mentality; start thinking like a victor. Victors look at the bright side of life.
There is power in what we think or imagine. Our imagination has the capacity to produce result anywhere we direct it. Studies after studies have shown that your thinking creates your reality. So, why not use your mind- that beautiful gift God gave you to make your life better. Use your imagination to your own advantage. Use it to create the kind of life you desire. Shift your thought from the negative to the positive. Redirect it from the ugly to the beautiful.
Speak to Yourself
The world is filled with people who complain about the negative things other people said to them. Some are still blaming their woes and failures on what their teachers said to them back in third grade. Some believe that they are suffering today because their parents or uncles or siblings didn’t say nice things to them when they were growing up. But what are you saying to yourself now? Your teacher, parents or siblings can’t change what they had already said to you. But you can change what you say to yourself. And for your information, you are going to have people say negative things to you almost every time, so, brace up.
Your self- talk is more important than one thousand nice words from family and friends. What you think and say controls the outcomes you see in your life.
Exercise
1 Use the WH question types to probe deeper into the patterns in your life or family. Ask why, how when where who etc
2 Write down three Bible potions that speak directly to your case
3 Pray the prayer points below
Prophetic Declaration
Make this a daily confession three times every day for at least seven days
Today I declare an end to (mention the evil pattern you have noticed in your life). My life will run smoothly from today onwards. I break the stronghold of any evil spirit afflicting my life in Jesus name
I declare that I am getting better every day. My life is improving; my lot is getting better every day. I am fearfully and wonderfully made. I am a success. I succeed in whatever I do because I do not walk in the way of evil men. I am full of life, energy and vitality. My life is oozing with sweet smelling savor. I am highly favored. I am the blessed of the Lord.
cc John Ijeh