How to overcome a spirit of defeat : It’s Time to Break Out

Bubble Of Defeat

Have you ever felt like it was you against the world?

No matter how hard you try, it always seems like something happens.

You moved to a new city.
You started a new job.
You finally let that man or woman go.
You tried to make better decisions.
You started giving. You started tithing. You started trying to live for God.

But somehow, your bank account is still sitting at zero.

You heard about the windows of heaven opening, but it doesn’t seem like they have opened for you.

And if you’re being completely truthful, sometimes you think back to when you were living differently. Maybe you were stripping, hustling, dealing, or doing whatever you knew how to do to survive, and at least you had money coming in.

Now you’re trying to do right, but everything seems to keep stacking up against you.

Every time you think you’re finally about to catch a break, here comes that old cycle of defeat again.

Eventually, something starts happening inside of you:

You begin expecting things to go wrong.

That’s the Bubble of Defeat

I was reflecting and journaling today, as I often do, when these words came to me:

The bubble of defeat.

I didn’t sit down trying to come up with that phrase. I believe the Holy Spirit gave it to me.

The bubble of defeat is that invisible wall that begins forming around you after you’ve experienced disappointment after disappointment.

It keeps you from believing.

It keeps you from moving forward.

It keeps you from expecting anything good because life has trained you to prepare for the next bad thing.

You can smile.

You can go to work.

You can go to church.

You can tell everybody, “I’m okay.”

But inside, you feel stuck.

Isolated.

Held back by disappointment, fear, old pain, and memories of everything that didn’t work.

You’re living inside a bubble of defeat.

But I believe God wants to burst that bubble.

There Is Life on the Other Side of the Pain

Think about a woman giving birth.

There is pressure. There is pain. There is labor. There are moments when she may feel like she cannot take anymore.

But then comes the breakthrough.

The baby is born.

Jesus used this picture when He said:

“A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world.”

John 16:21 KJV

That is what came to my mind when I thought about breaking through the bubble of defeat.

One day, you’re going to look back at some of the things you thought would destroy you.

The past-due bills.

The eviction.

The repossession.

The debt collectors.

The overdrawn bank account.

Sleeping in your car.

Homelessness.

Poverty.

The doors that closed.

The nights you cried wondering how you were going to make it.

You will remember that it happened, but you will also be able to see how God carried you through it.

The pain did not get the final word.

Stop Rehearsing Defeat

The Bible says:

“No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper.”

Isaiah 54:17 KJV

Notice that Scripture doesn’t say the weapon won’t form.

Sometimes it forms.

Sometimes you see it.

Sometimes you feel the pressure of it.

But it does not get to determine the final outcome of your life.

This is why we have to pay attention to what we continually rehearse in our minds.

Proverbs 23:7 says, “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.”

When you have experienced defeat repeatedly, negative thinking can become automatic.

Here we go again.

Nothing ever works for me.

Every time I get ahead, something happens.

Maybe my life is just supposed to be like this.

But those thoughts can become part of the bubble.

At some point, you have to stop rehearsing everything that went wrong and start rehearsing what God said.

And if you don’t know what else to say, open your Bible.

Say what the Word says about you.

Read it until you believe it.

Speak it when your circumstances contradict it.

Pray it when you’re scared.

Meditate on it when your mind wants to return to everything that went wrong.

Sometimes you have to keep putting the Word inside of you until the Holy Spirit begins bringing it back to your remembrance.

Faith Doesn’t Mean Pretending

Faith does not mean pretending the situation isn’t difficult.

Faith does not mean your bills magically disappear because you quoted a Scripture.

Sometimes breakthrough doesn’t happen overnight.

Sometimes there is a process.

Sometimes you suffer.

Sometimes you have to endure something longer than you wanted to.

But Scripture says:

“But the God of all grace… after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.”

1 Peter 5:10 KJV

After you have suffered a while.

That means the suffering has a while.

It is not forever.

God can restore you.

God can strengthen you.

God can establish you.

God can settle you.

Jeremiah 29:11 says:

“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.”

Jeremiah 29:11 KJV

There is still an expected end.

Remember What Really Lasts

Sometimes our struggles can become so consuming that everything starts revolving around what we have, what we don’t have, how we look, what we can afford, and what everybody else seems to have.

But we came into this world with nothing, and we will leave it with nothing.

Even these bodies are temporary.

That doesn’t mean there is anything wrong with enjoying nice things, taking care of yourself, looking good, improving yourself, or enjoying what God allows you to have.

But those things cannot become the purpose of your life.

There is too much work to be done.

There are people to love.

There are people to encourage.

There are gifts God put inside of you that still need to be used.

There is purpose beyond possessions.

There is something bigger than what you can see right now.

I’m Walking Through This Too

And I want you to understand something:

I am not writing this from some mountaintop where everything in my own life has already worked out.

I woke up today trying to figure out how I was going to fix some of my own situations.

There are things in my life right now that do not look like what God said.

So I have to do the same thing I am encouraging you to do.

I have to believe while I’m waiting.

I have to trust while I cannot see.

I have to watch my thoughts.

I have to refuse to allow repeated disappointment to convince me that disappointment is all there will ever be.

That is how this message came about.

I needed it too.

It’s Time to Break Out

Today, choose to believe God even in the low place.

Don't build a permanent home inside a temporary season.

Don't allow yesterday’s disappointments to decide what you expect from tomorrow.

And don't stay trapped inside the bubble of defeat.

Scripture tells us:

“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”

Romans 8:28 KJV

I may not understand how everything is working together yet.

You may not understand it either.

But God is not a man that He should lie.

So I am choosing to believe that I will see His promises come to pass.

And I am believing the same for you.

The bubble of defeat has held you long enough.

It’s time to break through.

It’s time to believe again.

It’s time to hope again.

It’s time to move again.

It’s time to expect God again.

In the name of Jesus, amen.