Weeks ago I finished a series of messages on transformation and renewal of the mind.
We learned that your mind needs to be transformed by the word of God because Your life is the result of your decisions, because as you think, so you are!
The life you have today, the diplomas you have, the body you have, what you are doing here today is the result of your decisions and the habits you have practiced.
No one plans on messing up their lives, but many are doing it all the time. How do people screw up their lives?
They make a bad decision, take a wrong step, and form an unhealthy habit.
A reckless decision, a wrong step, a bad habit that has the potential to ruin lives.
I’m not going to talk about bad habits today, (maybe next week) but I want to help you make decisions that will lead to good habits, holy habits, and habits that will transform your life.
A small habit can transform your life!
Every good Christian has many good habits. These good habits make a Christian what he or she is today. All great men and women of God have habits that made them great. Our Lord Jesus had habits. And He challenged us to have the same habits as He did.
How many of you have something specific in your life that you want to change?
If there’s something you’re hoping to change, I want you to think about that specific thing.
Perhaps you have a desire to know God deeply.
Some of you might be hoping to get out of debt or hoping for a better job.
There may be some of you who are hoping to improve your marriage, you want to improve your spiritual life, or you want to overcome some addiction that has been destroying your life.
Do you have hope that your life can be transformed?
I want to tell you that having hope and having faith are good things. But hope alone will not change your life. Good habits will.
“So faith without good works is dead.”
Tiago 2:26
Faith without good habits is a dead faith!
I hope you have hope and faith, but even more than just hope, I hope work on creating the right habits, which are good works.
Hope alone will not change your life, habits will. And I’ll try to illustrate this. I’ll ask another question.
What did you do last Monday morning? Think about it for a moment. Can you remember what you did last Monday morning?
Do you remember? The reason you remember is probably because you did the same thing on Monday as you did on Tuesday morning, right? And probably something similar you did on Wednesday that you’ve been repeating every day of the week.
So, you’ve probably done something like: maybe you picked up your phone and checked Instagram or maybe you picked up your phone and checked your emails. Or maybe the “spiritual” ones grabbed their Bible, because you are more spiritual than those who logged straight on Instagram, or WhatsApp.
Most of what you normally do is not the result of faith but of habit. Faith alone will not change your life, but habits will. Faith without good habits is a dead faith!
In fact, there’s a fascinating study that shows that over 40% of the actions you make on a daily basis are not the result of decisions, but habit.
Much of what we do every day is not the result of a conscious decision. It is the result of daily habits.
So, if you want to change your life, you have to change your habits.
Let me try to show you the power of a habit. How can a good habit change your life?
How many of you know the story of Daniel?
The Babylonians attacked the people of Jerusalem, burned their temple, destroyed everything and took many of them captive.
And there was a boy named Daniel, he was a prisoner under the control of an all-powerful king. Then one day the king had some dreams. And all his spiritual interpreters could not understand what the dreams meant.
When Daniel heard about it, and God gave Daniel wisdom in the ability to interpret these dreams and that’s what Daniel did!
Why did God do something so big through Daniel?
And the answer is: God usually does great things from small habits.
“Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went home. And in his upper room, with his windows open toward Jerusalem, he knelt down on his knees three times that day, and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as was his custom since early days.”
Daniel 6:10 NKJV
Daniel prayed at specific times of the day. It was something he was used to doing. It was one of his biggest life secrets.
Years later, Daniel was thrown into the lions’ den.
How did he manage to face those lions?
The answer is, Daniel prayed just as he had before.
A small holy habit. What did this one small habit of praying, not just once, but three times a day in prayer, do for Daniel?
A holy habit changed the trajectory of Daniel’s life.
And that’s why I say to you, never underestimate how something big can start through a small habit.
Never underestimate what God can do in your marriage, in your faith, in your physical health, in your friendships, in your ministry, through a small habit. God honours holy habits.
Real and lasting change is spiritual transformation. Every change must have a spiritual cause.
That’s why we have to change our ways, not just because we want to be in better physical shape, but because we want to honour God with our bodies.
Not only do we want to have more money, but we want to honour God by being wise stewards of the resources He entrusts onto us.
If you want to change what you do, you need to change what you think about yourself. You are not what you think of yourself. You are who God says you are.
That’s why I want a spiritual change is needed to honour God.
Our habits need to transform us to be like Christ.
Who do you want to become, what kind of habit should you create to be a better Christian?
“I want to be a loving and engaged mother”
“I want to be a spiritual example for my children”. “I want to be a man / woman of prayer”.
“I want to be a witness for Jesus to people at work.” “I want to be someone who works for the glory of God”, “I want to be a more loving person”
Based on who you want to become, what are the habits you need to start?
It’s not bad if it’s small. Maybe it’s better to start small.
What do you want to do?
You should be realistic, I want to start running 10km today, or I want to pay off my house by next month are not things you can achieve in one go.
Start small. Maybe you want to be more disciplined. So what kind of habits do you need to create?
Your little habit can be Bible before Facebook, or Bible before Instagram. For some of you, that would be a miracle!
And let me tell you something: All things are possible with God. Matthew 19:26
Do you want to leave a spiritual legacy? So your little habit is praying with your kids every night before they go to bed.
Or you can say, I want to be more organised. God is a God of order and I want to honour him with a more orderly life.
I want to be a healthier person and I want to honour God with my body, the temple of the Holy Spirit.
So for you it might be simply that you want to cut out sweets and junk food.
Maybe you want to know the Bible more, this might be also be a case of Bible before Facebook, but remember, you have the power of the risen Christ living inside you. You are not a victim, you are a winner.
Or you may say, I want to be closer to God. What kind of habit do you need to create?
Your habit could be this, My family and I will go to church every Sunday, I won’t miss a single Sunday. Jesus also had this habit!
The Bible teaches us that Jesus was in the habit of going to church.
“So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read.”
Luke 4:16 NKJV
I’m going to read another verse from the Bible about a habit, the habit of going to church together.
“not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”
Hebrews 10:25 NIV
Some do not have the habit of going to church every Sunday.
Remember that Sunday is not our day, but it is the Lord’s day and we need to do as Jesus did, according to his holy habit of going to church.
How are we going to create a new habit?
If you want to change what you do, change your surroundings. Make it obvious. Very, very simply, if you want to take vitamins in the morning and all your vitamins are in the cupboard, take them out and put them on the breakfast table.
Make it obvious. If you want to read your Bible every day to start your day, don’t leave your Bible in a drawer. Place your Bible on the breakfast table or somewhere you’ll be sure to see it.
Put a reminder on your phone to wake up and remember to do a Bible reading. Just make it obvious. Start there.
The key to creating any habit is to start by changing something in your routine that takes two minutes or less. Make it obvious and make it easy.
For example, let’s say you want to get into the habit of journaling. Instead of writing four pages, your goal is to write one sentence.
Let’s say you want to pray with your spouse, but it’s very difficult to pray with him because you feel nervous, intimidated. So talk to your spouse, what we’re going to do is just hold hands and thank God for one thing. God, thank you for our healthy children. God, thank you for our jobs, God thank you for life. Start small!
You want to read the whole Bible, start by reading it every day for 3 to 5 minutes. Start small, but do it!
Hope alone did not change my life. Hope alone did not make me more like Jesus. Sacred habits do.
There isn’t one big habit that has helped me get really close and intimate with God.
But there are many little habits that have helped transform me to become more like Jesus. And you can do the same.
Very simple, based on who you want to become. What habit do you need to start?
You will change by creating habits that honour a holy God.
Start today and do it every day!
We need to make the habit obvious and easy.
Don’t despise the small beginnings, because God is always happy to see start of something. Never underestimate how God can start something big from a small habit.
And God, through his power, will make us more like his Son, Jesus.
How many want to be more like Jesus and change their habits?
The bible says we all have sinned. And so many times we feel guilty, we feel ashamed, we feel far from God.
But God in His mercy, He loves you, He’s reaching out for you. And you are not listening to this message by chance. It’s not a coincidence.
I believe the Holy Spirit wants to change who you are. A real and lasting change. It is not behaviour modification, but a spiritual transformation.
We need to repent from bad habits and change our habits! We need to have holy habits!
When you call on His name. He hears your prayer, He forgives your sins.
Jesus is the Son of God. He died on the cross and God raised Him from the dead so that you might be forgiven and be transformed into the image of Jesus.
May God bless you and keep you.