HABITS

1 Corinthians 15:33 Do not be deceived: “Evil company corrupts good habits.”  (NKJV).
… good manners.  (The Message).
… good morals.  (NASB). 
… good character.  (GNT).

The word ‘Habits’ in our text for this “BriefWord”, is the Greek word ethos, and means customary abode, rite, customary state, custom, usage, morals, character.

Habit — an acquired behaviour pattern regularly followed until it has become almost involuntary.  (www.dictionary.com).

The study of habits — those things we do regularly, ‘almost involuntarily’, is fascinating, in that it reveals so much, and we discover habits are powerful things.  Habits I suspect have more of an influence on our spiritual life than we appreciate.

Habits can reveal, ruin and rebuild your life.  Your habits reveal your values.

Habits can make or break us.  I’m sure there are those we know of who’s lives have been ruined by bad habits.  Conversely, there are those we may look up to and admire for their success and blessing they’re experiencing and how well they’ve done in life, which they would say are simply the result of their habits.

Jesus lived by a number of habits, and one is recorded in, Luke 22:39 Coming out, He went to the Mount of Olives, as He was accustomed, and His disciples also followed Him.  (NKJV).  (Accustomed, is the same word ethos).

Of course there are the daily habits we have grown up to follow, things like having a shower, brushing your teeth, sitting down for dinner, turning the lights off.  But there are other habits that we do or don’t do that can have a huge impact upon our life.

For those who are in the privileged role of being in full time ministry and who prepare and minister a sermon regularly, I cannot stress enough how important this subject is.  Having of a regular ‘habit’ of sermon prayer, research, and preparation is vital to the health of the preacher and those who hear the sermon.

I always cringe when I hear of preachers/Pastors/ministers who say they have only prepared late on Friday or Saturday night.  Sometimes this even comes across as being ‘spiritual’, that somehow the revelation only came late.

It has been my experience that as I have set aside every Wednesday — yes the whole day — to prepare the Sunday sermon, that the delivery always goes better.  I have been amazed over the years how incredible the inspiration is, how much more wonderful the revelation becomes, how more confident I become in knowing “this is the Word of the Lord” for this occasion.

The Sunday delivery became better (most importantly for the listeners!) I believe because I had scheduled every Wednesday, all day, for sermon prayer, research and preparation.

In those Wednesdays revelation came from the Holy Spirit for messages and series of messages weeks and months in advance,  AND, when delivered those messages were absolutely in season.

The ‘habit’ I established of those Wednesdays was one habit that I held as a priority, which others knew about as well.

Bob Gas who writes “The Word For Today” says this;

“If you want to know your future, look at your daily routine.  You don’t determine your future, you determine your habits and your habits determine your future.  The secret to success lies in doing the right things day after day.  If you do that, you will eventually succeed”.  (The Word For The Day 16/9/14).

James Clear says;

“The way to become something is to do that — write to be a writer, run to be a runner.  Our identity emerges out of the habits that we have.  If you can change your habits you can change your life”.  (www.jamesclear.com).

(Note – Wow!  “ … our identity emerges out of the habits that we have … ”).

If someone were to look over your schedule, what would they see?

I am finding it to be so true, that if something is not in my schedule (written in my diary), it just won’t happen.  But when it is, it happens!

It is amazing the power for change that one little habit can make.  I have started something recently that is having a wonderful impact on my life!  For good!  Most of us live busy lives with many demands on our time.  And that thing called ‘email’ just soaks up so much time,  I found myself checking emails before other important things.

So, I wrote myself a little note, and put on my wall which simple says “Bible Before Emails”.  In the morning or whenever it is that I get to my emails for the first time that day, I am now in the habit of reading the ‘Bible, before emails’.

It has been so refreshing!  Encouraging.  Inspiring.  Even physically energising.

Habits usually are part of a process.  A process produces a product, an event doesn’t.

Some of us are very goal orientated, some are not so much.  That’s ok, it is how God made us.

However, in my experience when goals are not achieved, even ones we feel are God-given, we can become discouraged.

It is much better therefore to focus more on the ‘process’ rather than the goal.  Winning sports teams know this.  They have amazing goals, but the best teams know that goals are only achieved by the faithful, regular, hard work of process — training, getting the basics right, showing up!

In other words they are totally committed to, and are in the habit of training, getting the basics right, showing up.

If we show up and are in the habit of writing, we are a writer!  If we show up and are in the habit of praying, we are a prayer warrior!  If we show up and are in the habit of preparing sermons, we are a preacher!

It’s true.  Habits can reveal, ruin and rebuild your life.  Good habits can put us in a position to defeat the devil, see answered prayer, and receive the fruit of invested finance time and talents.

Don’t let anything or anyone corrupt your good habits!