Do your current prayer and Bible study habits support your desire to love the Lord with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength? (Mark 12:29-30; Deuteronomy 6:4-7) Will they lead to you becoming the person God intends you to be? Like it or not, we will become what our habits dictate. If we nurture habits of faithfulness, we will be faithful people. If we engage in habits of sin, we will be sinful people.
It’s a simple equation that yields predictable results. (Galatians 6:7-8; Romans 6:16) No matter how much we may want to believe otherwise, our habits say more about what is most important to us than anything else. The good news is our habits are one thing we can control. What we choose to do with our time is up to us. What do your habits say about you?
Every morning when you wake, you decide if you will start your day in prayer and in God’s Word or scrolling through the endless opinions and lifestyles of others on your phone. You get to decide if you will set the alarm earlier to have quiet time with the Lord, or pull the covers up and sleep a little longer. You might think indulging in comfort or pleasure “just this once” will not hurt you, but “just this once” more often than not becomes the norm. Every selfish indulgence runs the risk of creating a destructive habit. (James 1:14-15; Hebrews 3:12-13) What do your habits say about you?
I don’t write an advice column. I write about living a life devoted to Christ. Any wisdom I have is from time spent studying God’s Word and communing with the all-wise Creator in prayer. (Psalm 119:97-100; James 1:5; Proverbs 2:6) So don’t mistake this as another article declaring “The Top 16 Habits for Dramatic Results.” There are plenty of habits that will make you feel better, look better, and move better. There are only two that will change your life: read God’s Word and spend dedicated time with Him in prayer. (Joshua 1:8; Psalm 1:1-3; 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)
No amount of self-improvement is going to change the fact that it will all be meaningless in the end. No amount of healthy eating and living will allow you to avoid your inevitable death. (Hebrews 9:27; Psalm 90:10-12) And no matter how much you may think otherwise, no amount of good works will ever get you into Heaven. (Ephesians 2:8-9; Titus 3:4-7) Only what you do for Christ will last (1 Corinthians 3:11-15; 1 John 2:17), and only faith in Him will save your soul. (John 3:16-18; Acts 4:12) Everything else is all vanity, a chasing after the wind. (Ecclesiastes 1:14; Ecclesiastes 2:11)
God is responsible for your salvation, but you are responsible for your actions. (Philippians 2:12-13) We can’t save ourselves, but we can live lives honoring the only One who can save us. We get to decide how we will live and what we will do with the time God entrusts to us. Each of us chooses who we will allow to influence us, and we decide what we will indulge in and what we will neglect. Jesus died so that we might live. (2 Corinthians 5:14-15; 1 Peter 2:24) How are we spending our days to thank Him for that? If He is your Lord, your habits will proclaim that truth. (John 14:15; 1 John 2:3-6) What do your habits say about you?