Repetition – The Key to Spiritual Transformation

By Eldon Kibbey

The Daily Rhythm of Life

As the saying goes, “Life is so daily.” We wake up, go about the day’s activities, go to bed, and then repeat it the next day. Many of us develop repetitive habits like exercising, reading the Bible, and praying when we get up. Even our prayers can be pretty repetitive.

It might make us wonder how God views this repetition. The realization is that repetition is part of God’s plan!

Why God Uses Repetition

God models repetition in creation, such as the sun coming up every morning and setting every evening. He also repeated the word, “whatever,” six times in Philippians 4:8. And He repeatedly told the Israelites about His freeing them from slavery in Egypt.

Repetition is necessary for two main reasons:

1. We forget! We tend to forget what we learned the last time we read Scripture.

2. We need transformation. We are so stuck in the repetitive habits of our flesh that He needs to transform us, and that requires repetition to do the right things. The Israelites had difficulty obeying God, and we struggle with the same thing.

The Power of Positive Habits

This is why it is so important to read the Bible every day. When we read it again, we have had different experiences, and the scripture will grab us in a different way.

Repetition is the key to memorization. Memorization leads to the transference of the positive ideas of Philippians 4:8—whatever is true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, of good repute, excellent, and worthy of praise—from our conscious mind to our sub-conscious, so it becomes a habit.

Each of us has developed fleshly patterns of habits that we repeat, whether they are good for us or not. Shouldn’t we endeavor to replace these with godly habits, which become repetitive?

This repetition extends to our purpose: Love God, Love People, and Make Disciples. There is a lot of repetition in all of these relationships, and it is good to develop positive habits. It is also a good idea to look at the negative repetitions in our lives and replace them with good ones!

The Heart of Repetitive Prayer

We hear stories about people who come to Christ after someone has been praying for them for 30 or 40 years. Does God get tired of hearing that repetitive prayer? No, God enjoys hearing our prayers.

The most important factor is motivation. Saying the same prayers and reading the same scriptures should come from our heart, and not from the idea of checking it off a list to make us look good. Our motivation should be to please God and bring glory to Him.