(Introduction to the Series: 10 Habits of Christian Faithfulness)
Everything you do is determined by habits.
From brushing your teeth to driving your car – habits dictate your moves.
Even those first times as you’re learning. Your patterns for learning are the results of other learning events.
From playing a game of tag to playing Bach on your violin, habits make it happen, for success or shame.
Survival
You can’t survive without habits.
Where do they come from – whether good ones or bad?
Repeated thoughts, choices, and actions - create habits.
“Repetition is the Mother of Learning” is an old but good truism.
My mother said, at the end of every meal, “Go wash your hands and face and brush your teeth.”
Even when I came home from college, she told me the same thing.
As the old saying goes, “She couldn’t help herself.” It was a deep habit.
Consequently, I developed the habits of wash and brush.
Good VS Bad
Let’s be honest.
1) We all have good habits and we all have bad habits;
2) We ought to eliminate the bad ones.
Bad News
I cannot eliminate a habit.
So… What to do?!
Big Truth
I can replace one habit with a different one.
1) I can make the old habit weaker by choosing not to repeat it. Lack of use weakens a habit.
2) I can make the new habit stronger than the old habit, through planned repetition. Then it is more likely that I will do the new habit instead of the old one.
No Contest
It isn’t a contest between Habit or No Habit.
I cannot survive without habits.
Neither can you.
Even old habits that you no longer want, will continue to bother you.
Paul writes about the strength of his old habits. They continued to confront him, even after years in Pastoral Ministry.
Romans 7:19, “For the good that I would, I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.”
It is a fact of life on Earth that we will be tempted by bad habits, even as Christians.
We will be accused by the devil because of bad habits in the past.
A life for God is and will always be a struggle against temptation to sin.
Good News
But with the right habits we can live the Victorious Life in Christ.
Over the next few weeks we will look at habits that will tie us closer to God.
We will find out about habits that block the devil’s works to separate us from God.
We have the assurance from God’s Word, in Romans 8: 38, 39:
“For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Let’s cooperate with God to shape our habits so that they bind us to Him.
That’s where safety is: Walking with God.
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