Ridding Bad Habits
While on a road trip headed home to Florida one hot afternoon some years ago, I saw an unusual small fenced-in area near Mobile Bay. Rusty cans, paper plates, Styrofoam cups –trash and junk– piled high behind a chain link fence.
A sign over it explained: “Look at the bad habits we picked up.”
The words I had heard in a sermon a few days earlier came back to me. “God can take the garbage in our lives and make a compost heap to fertilize good fruit instead.”
A habit, I knew, is a behavior pattern you acquire by frequent repetition. When I got home I was convicted by that sign. Even though I was a Christian, over time I had picked up habits displeasing to God.
I decided to make a list of my garbage habits and have a private bonfire in my backyard out in the country. A breeze kept blowing out the matches as though the enemy was battling to make me keep those habits which had made my Christian witness ineffective. Finally, the paper list started burning, but some ashes blew over the yard. I ran to push them into the ground with my foot, determined to grind those ugly habits into the soil as much as I could.
I wish my bad habits were as easy to overcome as burning a list of them. But it took time, discipline and hard work with the help of the Holy Spirit to undo some. I knew only God could turn my debris into beautiful fruit.
Most of us, if we are honest, can at some time in our life identify with Paul as he wrote the Romans:
“…For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good… As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me…What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God — through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:15b,17,24-25 NIV)
Though we are all creatures of habit, we can take positive steps toward breaking the undesirable ones—-complaining, worrying, being fearful, manipulating, compulsive behavior and others. We can replace them with healthy routines instead. Like Paul we too long to stop doing the things we hate.
With God’s help and our cooperation, we can! Here are some ways:
- Recognize, admit and desire to overcome the problem.
- Pray and ask God to help us.
- Decide on a plan of action.
- Find a creative replacement. For every bad habit we kick, find a creative way to use our time, energy and God-given talents constructively.
- Maintain a spirit of gratitude for every bad habit we overcome.
God loves us and wants us to live victorious lives! Exhibiting good fruit.
Scripture: But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. (Galatians 5:22-23 NKJV)
Scripture: Let all bitterness and indignation and wrath (passion, rage, bad temper) and resentment (anger, animosity) and quarreling (brawling, clamor, contention) and slander (evil-speaking, abusive or blasphemous language) be banished from you, with all malice (spite, ill will, or baseness of any kind). (Ephesians 4:3 AMPC)
Prayer: Father, thank You that Jesus shed His blood on the cross and provided a way for my sins to be covered. I accept Jesus’ sacrifice for me and receive Your forgiveness and cleansing. Lord, help me to yield my will to You in every area, allowing the Holy Spirit to work deeply in my heart to free me of bad habits. I want to continually abide in You, bear the fruit of the Holy Spirit in my life and walk in complete freedom. Amen.
See our ebook “You Can Break That Habit and Be Free.” Available on Amazon.
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