Transforming Habits: Finding Freedom in Christ

 

Summary

Today, we explored the profound impact of habits on our lives and how they can either enslave us or set us free. We began by acknowledging the common struggles we all face with habits, whether they involve food, technology, procrastination, or negative self-talk. These habits often bring shame and isolation, but it's important to remember that we are not alone in these struggles. Jesus invites us to come to Him with our burdens, offering rest and an easy yoke. This yoke is not about passivity but about engaging in a life that is not burdensome or oppressive.

Dallas Willard describes this easy yoke as learning from Jesus a way of life that allows us to be at home with the Father, receiving power from Him rather than relying solely on our limited willpower. This involves habit reformation, where we become the kind of people who naturally do what is right and loving. Habits, when transformed, become a gift from God, allowing us to act with grace and ease.

We discussed the concept of habit formation using insights from BJ Fogg's book "Tiny Habits." Fogg identifies three key ingredients for action: motivation, ability, and prompt. Motivation is the desire to do something, ability is the ease with which it can be done, and a prompt is a trigger that initiates the action. By understanding these elements, we can disrupt negative habits and cultivate positive ones.

For instance, if doom scrolling is a habit you want to break, you can make it harder to do by placing your phone in another room. Conversely, if you want to maintain a clean desk, start with a tiny habit like putting away one book each day. This approach makes habit formation less daunting and more achievable.

As we continue this journey, consider what habits you want to change or cultivate. Reflect on your motivation, ability, and the prompts in your life. Remember, love is a habit, and by forming habits that align with loving God and others, we can experience the easy yoke Jesus offers.

Key Takeaways:

1. Shared Struggles and Jesus' Invitation: We all wrestle with habits that bring shame and isolation, but Jesus invites us to come to Him with our burdens, offering rest and an easy yoke. This yoke is about engaging in a life that is not burdensome or oppressive, allowing us to find rest for our souls. [02:40]

2. The Easy Yoke and Habit Reformation: The easy yoke Jesus offers involves learning a way of life that allows us to be at home with the Father, receiving power from Him. This requires habit reformation, where we become people who naturally do what is right and loving, acting with grace and ease. [03:35]

3. Understanding Habit Formation: BJ Fogg's model of habit formation involves three key ingredients: motivation, ability, and prompt. By understanding these elements, we can disrupt negative habits and cultivate positive ones, making habit formation less daunting and more achievable. [05:13]

4. Disrupting Negative Habits: To break a negative habit like doom scrolling, make it harder to do by changing your environment, such as placing your phone in another room. This simple change can disrupt the habit and lead to more positive behaviors. [09:05]

5. Cultivating Positive Habits: Start with tiny habits to cultivate positive changes, like putting away one book each day to maintain a clean desk. This approach makes habit formation manageable and helps build momentum for larger changes. [10:41]

Youtube Chapters:

- [00:00] - Welcome
- [00:44] - Introduction to Habits
- [01:10] - Common Habit Struggles
- [02:10] - The Burden of Habits
- [02:40] - Jesus' Invitation
- [03:07] - The Easy Yoke
- [03:35] - Habit Reformation
- [04:31] - Misconceptions About Habits
- [04:56] - BJ Fogg's Tiny Habits
- [05:30] - Motivation, Ability, and Prompt
- [06:15] - Examples of Motivation and Ability
- [07:14] - The Habit Formation Diagram
- [08:14] - Disrupting Negative Habits
- [09:32] - Cultivating Positive Habits
- [11:12] - Conclusion and Next Steps

Study Guide

Bible Study Discussion Guide

Bible Reading:
1. Matthew 11:28-30 - "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

Observation Questions:
1. What are some common habits mentioned in the sermon that people struggle with? How do these habits affect our daily lives? [01:10]
2. According to the sermon, what does Jesus offer to those who are burdened by their habits? [02:40]
3. How does Dallas Willard describe the "easy yoke" that Jesus offers? What does it mean to be at home with the Father? [03:35]
4. What are the three key ingredients of habit formation according to BJ Fogg's model? How do they interact with each other? [05:13]

Interpretation Questions:
1. How does the concept of Jesus' easy yoke challenge the way we typically approach habit change? What does it mean to engage in a life that is not burdensome? [03:07]
2. In what ways can understanding motivation, ability, and prompt help us in our spiritual journey and habit formation? [05:30]
3. How might the idea of habit reformation change the way we view our relationship with God and others? [04:04]
4. What role does community play in supporting each other through the struggles of habit change, as suggested by the sermon? [02:25]

Application Questions:
1. Reflect on a habit in your life that you feel enslaved by. How can you bring this burden to Jesus and seek His rest and easy yoke? [02:40]
2. Identify a negative habit you want to disrupt. What practical steps can you take to make this habit harder to engage in, as suggested in the sermon? [09:05]
3. Consider a positive habit you want to cultivate. What is one tiny habit you can start today to make this change more manageable? [10:41]
4. How can you apply the concept of motivation, ability, and prompt to a specific area of your spiritual life that you want to grow in? [05:13]
5. Think about a time when you felt isolated because of a habit. How can you reach out to your community for support and encouragement in overcoming this habit? [02:25]
6. What does it mean for you to live a life that is not burdensome or oppressive, as described in the sermon? How can you take steps towards this kind of life? [03:19]
7. Reflect on the idea that love is a habit. How can you intentionally form habits that align with loving God and others in your daily life? [11:55]

Devotional

Day 1: Embracing Jesus' Invitation to Rest
We all struggle with habits that can bring feelings of shame and isolation. These habits, whether they involve food, technology, procrastination, or negative self-talk, can weigh heavily on our hearts. However, it's important to remember that we are not alone in these struggles. Jesus invites us to come to Him with our burdens, offering rest and an easy yoke. This yoke is not about passivity but about engaging in a life that is not burdensome or oppressive, allowing us to find rest for our souls. By accepting Jesus' invitation, we can begin to experience a life of freedom and peace. [02:40]

Matthew 11:28-30 (ESV): "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

Reflection: What burdens are you carrying today that you need to bring to Jesus? How can you practically lay them down at His feet and accept His invitation to rest?


Day 2: Transforming Habits Through the Easy Yoke
The easy yoke Jesus offers involves learning a way of life that allows us to be at home with the Father, receiving power from Him rather than relying solely on our limited willpower. This requires habit reformation, where we become people who naturally do what is right and loving, acting with grace and ease. Dallas Willard describes this process as learning from Jesus a way of life that is not burdensome or oppressive. By aligning our habits with the teachings of Jesus, we can experience a transformation that leads to a more fulfilling and loving life. [03:35]

Colossians 3:9-10 (ESV): "Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator."

Reflection: What is one habit you feel called to reform in your life? How can you invite Jesus into this process to help you transform it into something that aligns with His teachings?


Day 3: Understanding the Elements of Habit Formation
BJ Fogg's model of habit formation involves three key ingredients: motivation, ability, and prompt. Motivation is the desire to do something, ability is the ease with which it can be done, and a prompt is a trigger that initiates the action. By understanding these elements, we can disrupt negative habits and cultivate positive ones, making habit formation less daunting and more achievable. This understanding empowers us to take control of our habits and align them with our values and goals. [05:13]

Proverbs 16:3 (ESV): "Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established."

Reflection: Identify a habit you want to change. What is your motivation for changing it, and what prompts can you set up to support this change?


Day 4: Disrupting Negative Habits for Positive Change
To break a negative habit like doom scrolling, it's helpful to make it harder to do by changing your environment. For example, placing your phone in another room can disrupt the habit and lead to more positive behaviors. By intentionally altering our surroundings and routines, we can create barriers to negative habits and open up space for healthier ones. This simple yet effective strategy can lead to significant changes in our daily lives. [09:05]

Ephesians 4:22-24 (ESV): "To put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness."

Reflection: What is one negative habit you want to disrupt? How can you change your environment to make this habit more difficult to engage in?


Day 5: Cultivating Positive Habits with Small Steps
Starting with tiny habits can help cultivate positive changes in our lives. For instance, if you want to maintain a clean desk, begin with a small habit like putting away one book each day. This approach makes habit formation manageable and helps build momentum for larger changes. By focusing on small, achievable steps, we can gradually transform our habits and align them with our values and goals. [10:41]

Zechariah 4:10 (ESV): "For whoever has despised the day of small things shall rejoice, and shall see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel."

Reflection: What is one small habit you can start today to work towards a larger goal? How can you ensure consistency in this small step to build momentum for change?

Quotes


"Come to me all you who labor and you're heavy laden you're burdened you're troubled you're tired, and I will give you rest and then he says take my yoke on you and learn from me, for I'm gentle and humble and hard you'll find rest for your soul for my yoke is easy and my burden is light." [00:02:42]

"Dallas Willard says that the easy yoke is about learning from Jesus a way of life through which we can be at home when the father received power from the father. It's supposed to trying to grind my way through life by my own limited willpower, try to do the right thing now try to do the right thing now try to do the right thing now." [00:03:30]

"God has given us the gift of habit and when something becomes habitual then I do it with increasing ease and it doesn't take a lot of thought or effort or willpower and I become more effective in it when somebody is habitually able to play baseball or play the piano they do it with Grace they do it gracefully." [00:04:13]

"BJ Fogg says when it comes to cultivating habits, or action there's always three ingredients anytime you take action on something it will involve these three elements motivation, ability, and prompt will come together motivation is I gotta want to do something, and the more you want to do something, the more likely it is that it will happen." [00:05:14]

"The harder it is to do the less likely it is to happen, so sometimes I'll hear things that sound like a great idea my friend Rick is an amazing ability of investment expertise and financial management just knows this stuff back and forth my son-in-law Zach is amazing with technology my friend Chuck can build and create and rewire stuff." [00:06:12]

"Motivation and ability for Access are kind of like teammates, the higher your motivation is the less ability you might have and you'll still do it the easier something is the lower your motivation can be and without prompts nothing will happen." [00:06:50]

"If something is easy to do and my motivation is high when the prompt for it comes then that prompt is very likely to be successful and I'll probably do it on the other hand if that task is really hard to do and my motivation is really low, then it's probably not going to happen." [00:07:47]

"Disrupt your ability, make it harder to do just put the phone in the other stinking room, and then I gotta get out of bed when the alarm goes off and once I'm out of bed I'm not going to be Doom scrolling in bed anymore so something as simple as that can disrupt The Habit." [00:09:07]

"There is something about walking into a clean neat office with a clean desk that feels to me that chaos has been thrust back and my motivation to do work my sense of freedom is higher so I'd like to have a cleaner desk but what I have always found is that when it comes to having a clean office and a clean desk my motivation for it sometimes is high sometimes it's lower." [00:10:01]

"Start with what BJ Fogg calls tiny habits and so the commitment that I made was I would just put one book away before I would leave my office at the end of the day, and part of what I'm discovering is I have been doing uh trying to build habits wrong for years and years and years." [00:10:31]

"To begin to disrupt wrong habits or cultivate right habits in ways that can be quite powerful and that's part of the easy yolk so we'll get into what those three Dynamics are where have I been getting it wrong and how do you begin to get it right." [00:11:03]

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart soul mind and strength, strength remember love is habit for me." [00:12:01]

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Transcript
What was the most surprising thing in this sermon?
Were there any personal stories shared?