|
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 weekly article that addresses Christian living. Ordinarily I
will begin the next week’s article as early as the day I send out the
present week’s article and thus be preparing it all week.
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 counseling every day
and conducting the weekly men’s meeting, 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 will be expecting our email 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 to express.
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 week, after the usual time for sending out the weekly email, I
happened to meet with a dear brother and he made reference to the fact that
he hadn’t received his weekly email. 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 I pastored
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.”
|
