A Dog Returns to Its own Vomit: Breaking the Cycles of Sin

Like a dog that returns to its vomit Is a fool who repeats his folly.

Proverbs 26:11 NASB1995

Now this may seem like an interesting title for a blog post, but I assure you it is biblical. The point of this blog post is to show you how you can be in a cycle of sin and failing, and how to get out. We will be learning about this cycle of sin from the Book of Judges. Now if anyone of you has read the book of Judges you may already know why I chose this book for this topic. To give you a brief summary, the book of judges will give you a headache. This is because you will see how the Children of Israel will go from serving God, to serving Idols, to being oppressed, to crying out to God, to being delivered, to serving God again, probably twenty times. You get to witness this amazing pattern that they never fail to fall back into.

Usually when I read the book of Judges I always walk away astounded by the lack of understanding that the Israelites have. But this last time I saw myself in them. I saw how I too fall into cycles of sin, then I get deliverance, then I fall back into the cycle. So I have decided to study the book of Judges and find a way to break that cycle. Let’s get started!

When the Lord raised up judges for them, the Lord was with the judge and delivered them from the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge; for the Lord was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who oppressed and afflicted them. But it came about when the judge died, that they would turn back and act more corruptly than their fathers, in following other gods to serve them and bow down to them; they did not abandon their practices or their stubborn ways.

Judges 2:18‭-‬19 NASB1995

I chose this first verse because it is a nice summary of what happens in the book of Judges. They serve God, then Idols. They can’t seem to make the connection between their prosperity and them serving God. So they always go back to serving the idols of the nations around them. But as you can see from the verse above, the pattern also is that when the Judge dies, then the people fall into idolatry. They needed the presence of a ruler in order to maintain their dedication to God.

I felt like the Lord was showing me that it is the same way in our lives. If we don’t keep God ‘alive’ in our day to day lives, then we will fall back into our cycle of sin. But how do we do that? We have to make God a bigger part of our lives. Just every Sunday at church isn’t enough to get your breakthrough. If you want to break that cycle, you have to make Jesus your King. That means you actually prioritize the things of Jesus in your life. You spend time with Him in the Word, in prayer, and in worship.

When you do this, you will not only see the benefits of breakthrough in areas of sin, but you will also see the blessings come in. You will have supernatural favor in your life, because the King of the Universe is taking care of you. And the reason why He takes care of you, is because you are one of His subjects. But only because you subject yourself to His will. You need to go to Him in everything. This is what it means to make Jesus Lord over your life. And this is what will get you past the cycles of sin that you find yourself in.

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