Ignored Cause of Poverty - Stasis

Sometimes we call this being stuck. We prophesy against it. We declare we are not going to be STUCK anymore. Yet It happens to all of us. It has happened to me. We get trapped by our surroundings.

You may be familiar with the Stockholm Syndrome. Look it up. It's when a person becomes comfortable, even friendly with a captor. In this case it's POVERTY that is the captor. Poverty becomes a familiar misery. It becomes a part of our identity. "I'm just a poor sinner saved by grace". It becomes easier to perpetuate our poverty then to change. This develops a victim-hood mentality and that is reinforced by making us "Eligible" for sympathy (and Welfare). Living in poverty is hard, but being comfortable (Friendly) with it is a trap.

The problem is a refusal to change. People will stay in poverty as long as it is comfortable. People avoid change until the pain of remaining the same is greater than the pain of changing. It's difficult to face.

YET, change is the only thing that works. Change of neighborhoods, change of those you hang around with, change of cities even. Change what you do for a living. The power to change is the only power you possess....that and a faith in an Unchanging GOD.

If you have become friends with Poverty, IF you are stuck, start by changing the way you talk about yourself. Not some phony baloney positive confessions that you parrot, but speaking to yourself in songs, hymns, spiritual songs and believing God for the Change you need. Here's where the prophetic comes in. You need to hear God declare change over your life. Begin by not confessing your poverty to yourself or others. Begin to break up with your friendship with poverty. Find ways to get away from pity and the other "Eligibilities" in your life. It's time to break free from the strongholds that have been built around you to keep you down.

In Gone with the Wind has Scarlett Ohara saying, "As God is my witness, as God is my witness they're not going to lick me. I'm going to live through this and when it's all over, I'll never be hungry again. No, nor any of my folk. If I have to lie, steal, cheat or kill. As God is my witness". She wasn't a christian, but her confession was real. You have to hate your poverty and determine to break up with it. No matter how friendly it seems, it's your enemy. Patty Hearst was a victim of Stockholm Syndrome, she joined her kidnappers. You may remember that time. Eventually she got out and was made whole. You can too.