Paulo Coelho made a statement which says, “everything that happens once can never happen again. But everything that happens twice will surely happen a third time.”. That’s the law of patterns: the first time is a chance, the second is warning and the third is consequence. Wish more people understood that life is all about patterns. You’re not broken. You’re repeating something. A thought. A reaction. A story. Change the pattern and you change your life. Well, this is easier said than done. Patterns are outward symptoms of something brewing in the human heart and mind. We are so accustomed to naturally think and choose evil than good, which results in recurring patterns of destructive behavior.
The Bible explicitly states the nature of human mind as “… always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth…men of depraved mind, rejected in regard to the faith.” (2 Timothy 3:7-8). The author in the Bible quotes an example of certain men who opposed leadership not because of mere likability but because of their depraved mindset which affected their behavior. If you observe the patterns in human behavior and thoughts, you will notice:
>Our habits, both positive and negative, are patterns of behavior.
>Our emotional responses often follow predictable patterns.
>The Law of Patterns suggests that our external reality reflects our internal state.
If we experience chaos or negativity in our circumstances, it may indicate a corresponding pattern of chaos or negativity within us.
The quote, "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit,"attributed to the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle. What we repeatedly do can be attributed in two ways, 1. Intentionally doing things repeatedly eventually making it a habit or pattern, and 2. We get caught in a web of lies and promises through which we end up doing certain things as a pattern.
The Bible diagnosing about the human heart states, "The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?" Heart can constantly be misleading in the way it tempts, allures and supports evil effortlessly. The heart is never a moral compass to point out to the truth and what is right. Truth can be only found in a person Jesus Christ who claimed it and invited people to follow the truth. Jesus is in the business of transforming human lives, their nature and patterns.
A man called Saul of Tarsus recorded in the Bible states that he became inflamed with hatred for the followers of Jesus. He sought to destroy the church in Jerusalem (Acts 8:1–3 Bible) and then headed for Damascus to tear up the church there (Acts 9:1–2 Bible). By his own admission he states, “even though I was a formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an arrogant man. But I received mercy because I acted out of ignorance and unbelief.”. The pattern of this man was to put the followers of Jesus into prison, persecute them, and destroying the Churches in Jerusalem. His pattern was broken when he encountered Jesus in the way to Damascus. He was totally transformed and immediately started sharing his transformative love of Christ to others.
You can change the consequences of your behavior pattern by looking to Christ Jesus for help. You don’t have to merely struggle to form a good pattern. He transforms a person like Saul of Tarsus from inside out. This same person who was called formerly Saul and later Paul writes in one of his books in the Bible, "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away; behold, the new has come". I invite you start your life with a new set of pattern which will be transformative and transcendental.
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