Transformative Power of Habits: Shaping Character and Love

Habits, when rightly formed, lead to freedom. They allow us to perform tasks without conscious effort, freeing our minds for more meaningful pursuits. This is evident in the way a child learns to walk or dress, initially requiring full attention but eventually becoming second nature. Similarly, spiritual habits, like those encouraged in the Bible, are meant to be embodied, becoming part of our very nature. The practice of love, generosity, and kindness should flow naturally from us, not as robotic actions but as genuine expressions of our faith. [00:04:12]

William James says if our life has any form to it at all if we any of any character, good or bad, our life is basically a mass of habits. You could not live without habits. Look at a little child when first they are learning how to dress themselves. It takes all of their focused attention when they're first learning how to walk. It is so difficult for them to figure out where do I put my foot and they fall and they struggle. [00:04:21]

The Bible, among many other things, is a book of habit formation or habit reformation, and we'll see that the practice of the Sabbath, the practice of tithing, giving to the poor in the Old Testament, the primary habit, the most important what was here this is the foundational text of the Old Testament scriptures: hear o Israel the Lord Our God the Lord is one love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. [00:07:04]

Now to be on our heart means that they're to be embodied so that I become an incarnation of love. I look at people and I love them and I give generously and I encourage and I challenge and I speak courageously, and I do all of these things more and more as second nature. When something becomes a habit, there is my nature breathing feels natural, eating is naturally to me. Well, when something is a habit, it becomes second nature. [00:07:36]

There are two great dangers when it comes to Habit formation. One is that we ignore it and then our lives are just lived in random enslavement to our desires. Our desires create the habits that enslave us. That's the Prodigal Son, whatever I want, why women in song. The other danger actually is the danger of the elder brother. I get real intentional about my habits, but then I pride myself on my habit reformation. [00:09:51]

Ultimately, the question of is this a good habit is does it lead me to love freely, honestly, sincerely from the heart, and I need good habits for that, not so that I can be proud and have a list of here's all the good habits I'm observing, but so that I can leverage the gifts that God has given to us in our bodies and our plasticity to become a person where that love is just in my heart. [00:10:38]

The challenge today is to begin looking at the habits of your life and asking what leads me to love. Write these words on your hand, Moses said, so today my invitation to you would be when you look at your hand, I look at my hand, I think God it's looking more like my dad's hands and think about my father's hand, my heavenly father's hands every time I look at my hands. [00:12:09]

God wants to be loved. What a tender, vulnerable thing that is, like a little note from a kid in Middle School: do you like me yes no maybe. God wants to be loved. That's why Israel loved that commandment so much. Our God, the god of the universe, wants to be loved and loves. I look at my hand, I wear my coat, and I remember I am loved by God, and I can be a source of love to other people. [00:12:29]

I could be a coat. See, love is habit for me. This journey, what we do each day might become a habit for you. Love is habit for me. I love you. [00:12:54]

Habits are really embodied values, For Better or For Worse, so if we want to grow in any area of life, if you want to have a great football team or a great team at work or become a truly good friend, you are my coat. It involves habit Reformation not because somebody else is telling you to do the habits need to be wise they need to bring about transformation from the inside. [00:06:17]

The idea of habit is not that I serve my habits, it's that my habits serve me. William James actually talks about I want to make my Neurosis my synapses serve me. So how do I know what is a good habit as we begin to think about habits together? [00:06:38]

Paul says in Colossians 3 as God's dearly loved children clothe yourself with compassion, kindness, gentleness, patience, humility. What does it mean to clothe yourself with these qualities? It is to put them on so that they become second nature, so that they flow out of you not rigidly, not robotically. They are on your heart, they are in your body. [00:08:46]