The deadly cycle

This might come as a shocking revelation to you, but as a child, I sometimes did things that I was told not to do. I would then face the consequences and judgment of my dear mother. I of course pled my case before, during, and after the punishment that I received. After I begged for forgiveness and the stinging sensation went away, there was harmony between my mother and me. The problem was that for a period of my life, I never learned the lesson. This cycle was unfortunately repeated several times.

In the book of Judges, there is a similar cycle that the children of God went through for around 330 years. They did evil in the sight of God. God would send judgement upon them by allowing them to fall into the hands of their enemies. After a period of time, they would cry out to God for deliverance and He would show them mercy and send a deliverer. After that, Scripture tells us that there was peace in the land until the cycle started all over again. If you add up the numbers, they spent around a third of those 330 years in some type of punishment. The book of Judges ends with these words, “In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.” They never learned their lesson. During this dark time, the children of God often stepped out from underneath the umbrella of God’s authority.

These few years that I have spent in ministry I have seen many people do what was right in their own eyes and step out from underneath the umbrella of God’s authority and the results have been cataclysmic. And even more troubling, some seem to get caught up in this cycle of destruction and it only regresses. No matter if we have been serving God for 75 years, or 75 hours, we need to maintain a vibrant relationship with Jesus Christ. Always do what is right in HIS eyes, and stay underneath the umbrella of His authority at all times.