Transforming Habits: Aligning Life with God's Purpose

We have talked before about how God created us so that we're able to outsource vast amounts of our lives to our habits, and that's a wonderful thing. To be able to drive or eat or put on our clothes without thinking about it is what makes life possible. But the problem is sin gets into our habits. [00:40:37]

Thomas Aquinas, we're learning from the Masters about the spiritual life, actually devoted over 70 pages to his massive book Summa Theologica to the cultivation of holy habits because, to a large extent, an effective life, a transformed life, is simply a life in which my habits are in alignment with my values. [00:68:25]

The writer of Hebrews, I think it's in Hebrews chapter 10, writes to people and says let's consider how we could spur each other on to good deeds. That's what we're doing. That's what you and I are trying to do in these moments together as The Fellowship of the withered hand because I can't, but God can. [00:91:37]

E. Stanley Jones was a remarkable Christian leader of the last century. A lot of folks have not heard much about him. He was a man of immense hope and extremely practical. The best man that ever lived on our planet illustrated receptivity and responsiveness to God. No one was so utterly dependent on God. [00:159:11]

He read scripture, he immersed his mind in good noble truth thoughts of a God of love habitually. He read the word of God by habit. Then secondly, it says he went out to the mountain to pray as was his custom. In other words, he prayed by habit. It was part of a rhythm that was simply into his life. [00:200:56]

John says these three simple habits were the foundation habits of his life. They are as up-to-date as tomorrow morning. No converted person can live without those habits at work vitally in his life. And then Jones goes out to say this: give up habits that cannot be Christianized, cannot be used by Jesus. [00:250:47]

I had a habit when I was under stress, when I was frustrated, when I was bored, I would pick my nails. It's sometimes called a nervous habit. Did it for years, tried to stop, couldn't do it, prayed, still didn't work. And then I read a book by Charles Duhigg, The Power of Habit, and he talks about a golden rule of habit formation. [00:318:14]

Now, if I want to change a habit, here's what's really important: never try to do it just by willpower. Never try to simply break a habit, and that's what I had always tried to do. I just tried to stop picking my fingernails. Duhigg says what you want to do is he recommends you take a couple of weeks and just pay careful attention. [00:373:05]

When those moments of nervousness or anxiety or boredom or frustration come, and they do, to just receive a little physical comfort from another fabric beside my skin but not just do that, also to remember that verse "Be still and know that I'm God" and invite God to enter into that. [00:564:14]

And then very often it helps when you make a commitment like that, here's something I want to change, to go public with it. So I'm going public. I'm telling all of you, which puts a little more pressure on me, but it's kind of a staking ground, and that will be a helpful thing. [00:584:52]

I want to invite God to shift this tiny little habit. I mean, I have much worse habits than this one. I will not tell you what they are, but they are there. But I thought I'd tell you about this one so that maybe we could encourage one another and provoke one another to good deeds. [00:612:29]

Get the habits working on the right side so that we can make a mark in this world as God calls us. That's today. Make it count. Thanks for joining us here at Become New. Dominique, if you'd like to receive the daily emails that go along with each video, let us know at become new DOT me. [00:629:56]