Habits

(*******Again,stolen from a friend's blog but he's just SO DARN good :) *******)


There are "good habits" and "bad habits." In the King James Version, the word "habit" does not appear; however, the word "wont" does. For example: "He came out, and went, as he was wont, to the Mount of Olives; and his disciples also followed him." [According to Strong: "wont" is a primary verb; to be used (by habit or conventionality); neuter perfect participle usage: --be custom (manner, wont).] Jesus could be said to have had "good habits."

The Apostles knew of the "good habit" of prayer in a certain place: "On the Sabbath we went out of the city by a river side, where prayer was wont to be made." In another Scripture certain people are said to have developed the "bad habit" of not going to church: "Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another-- and all the more as you see the Day approaching."(NIV) Paul warns that young widows may get into a "bad habit" - "they get into the habit of being idle and going about from house to house. And not only do they become idlers, but also gossips and busybodies, saying things they ought not to."(NIV) So the possibility of both good and bad habits exists.

But living on the basis of "I have always done it this way" could be ungodly. It has been my "habit" to prepare a few daily articles that addresses Christian living. Ordinarily I will begin the next day's article as early as the day I send out the present day's article and thus be preparing it all week.etc...

Last week I didn't. I spent more time sitting, thinking, and doing nothing than I have in a long while. Other than our task of witnessing every day and conducting a Music Ministry, I was pretty much non-productive. As day after day went by, I was aware time was running out. What will I do? Perhaps I could just cut and paste an article by Spurgeon or some other writer. People, like you, will be expecting my blog and bulletins and I don't want to let them down. I was feeling the pressure of my "habit" and it was bringing me under condemnation. Am I just lazy? What is going on? I have the "don'ts" and nothing is coming to mind that I could write. The Lord has given me no thoughts or time to express them.

As is my custom in my Christian walk, when I begin to fall under condemnation, I simply bring it before Father. "Lord, I just don't have anything to write. I confess to You that I don't even want to write and until you bring about a change in me, I am not going to write. I am in Your hands. I am at peace and without condemnation in the Lord Jesus Christ. I will rest in You. Your will be done. Amen."

Late in the day, after the usual time for sending out the daily posts, I happened to meet with a dear brother and he made reference to the fact that he hadn't received his daily post. Immediately I was tempted to slip under condemnation for breaking my "habit". Immediately I "rested" in my position of "no condemnation" knowing Father had not brought about a change after I confessed my helplessness apart from His gracious intervention. And that was that.

"Chamber's tells us, "The right thing to do with habits is to lose them in the life of the Lord, until every habit is so practiced that there is no conscious habit at all." Our Subtle Idol could be our little Christian habit: the habit of prayer at stated times, or the habit of Bible reading. Watch how our Father will upset those times if we begin to worship our habit instead of what the habit symbolizes – saying, "No, I can't do that just now, I am praying; it is my hour with God." No, it is my hour with my habit.

We should recognize the defect and then look for the opportunity of exercising ourselves along the line of being open to the spontaneous leading of the Spirit. We must never let a habit grip us so tightly that we are not sensitive to Father's bringing us into His purpose to do His work His way at His time even though it interferes with our "good habit."

We humans resist change. Habits seem to lend us sameness; something we can anticipate, something we can expect, knowing how and when it will begin and even more importantly, how it will turn out. Tozer said, "The immutability of God appears in its most perfect beauty when viewed against the mutability of man. In God no change is possible; in men change is impossible to escape. Neither the man is fixed nor his world, and he – and it – are in constant flux."

Years ago a woman in the church attended told me she was discovering how to live a spontaneous life as a Christian. She said that many times during the day she would stop and ask herself, "Is this the way I have ALWAYS done this? Father, do you want me to do it a different way or at another time or perhaps not at all?" She found a check in her spirit, a red light, each time she realized she was doing something the way she had ALWAYS done it. She told me that examining her habits had opened up a whole new relationship of dependence on Father. She said she began to see that she had been depending on the goodness of her "habit" instead of the immediate leading of the Holy Spirit.

I recall when my daughter was quite small and barged into the room where I was having my "quiet time with Father." I scolded her for intruding. She had interfered with my perceived "ideal," my habit. After she left crying and upset, I couldn't even refocus. It was as if Father had left the room with my little girl. I called for her to come back and I apologized and comforted her. We spent the rest of my "quiet time" together. We talked and shared and loved each other. I had made a subtle idol of my "quiet time" to the point I acted in "unlove" toward my precious little girl. It was all under the banner of keeping my "good habit."

If you have some "good habits", perhaps you should let God press through in that particular circumstance until you gain Him, and life becomes the simple life of a child. Be sure you have not allowed the subtle idol of habits to rob you of the Holy Spirit's leading. Hold on to everything loosely, being open to His will and His leading in everything you do.

"Dear children, keep yourselves from idols."

In Christ's Love,
John J. McCall