Those lessons God teaches us over and over are often unlearning lessons -- unlearning things and beliefs and ways of looking at life that we absorbed through decades of life.
Like success. When do you feel successful? Is it when you are holding (or seeing in your email inbox) a big paycheck? Is it when you have some sort of local fame (or even fame that reaches past your world)? Is it when your bank account is bordering on obese? Is it when you are told good job from lots of people?
Or like body image. You struggle to lose ten pounds that have been sticking to your bones for 20+ years but you believe if you lose them you will finally be happy with your body.
There's so many areas in our lives that play the same song for decades. Maybe we think it's because we just are so thick-headed, but no -- it isn't that. It's because God loves us so much that He hates to see us tied up in belief patterns that have been sucked into our cells unaware which we fell for. We gotta unlearn those American Dream beliefs. We gotta unlearn ideas about courage, success, beauty, what matters in life; personal rights, how relationships are supposed to work; retirement plans, how to spend free time; what to spend money on; what to fill our lives with.
For when we hold onto beliefs based on the world's outlook rather than on God's views we are cheating ourselves and others of blessings that come from living wholly for God.
God keeps going back to that issue in your life because it's holding you back from experiencing some incredible things. He doesn't delight in taking things from us. He doesn't delight in harrassing us over issues we don't want to deal with. That's not God's way. He is trying to free us from things that keep us bound.
Let's listen to God today. Let's go where He's leading. Let's let go of those thoughts that are keeping us bound to things that are not good for us.