There’s an old saying that goes something like this…”If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.”
Yet, so many of us continue to do what we’ve always done and wonder why we’re not getting different results. We put off studying for an exam, and then get upset because we got a poor grade. We keep to ourselves, and then wonders why they don’t have friends. We put off taking care of little things around the house then gets discouraged that our house is in the condition it’s in. “If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.”
This point is driven home in 2 Kings chapter 17. There, the unthinkable happens. Israel is defeated and taken over by the Assyrians, leaving them completely demoralized and discouraged. But, they were God’s chosen people. God Himself had led them out of Egyptian slavery with miracles the likes of which the world had never seen. How could this have happened?!
The answer is found in nearly every sentence of 2 Kings chapter 17. When God brought the Israelites out of Egypt, He gave them a new way to live. But they continued to do what everyone else had aways done. Consequently, they got the same results everyone else had gotten. (2 Kings 17:8) Though they were aware of a different way, they chose to keep doing what they had been doing; believing that some how it would yield different results. But it didn’t, and it doesn’t.
We’re all prone to do what we’ve always done. But God doesn’t call us to live life on autopilot. He calls us to make clear and intentional choices about how we will live. (Deuteronomy 30:19-20) We cannot be who we want to be, nor can we be where we want to be, if we continue to do what we’ve always done.
