3-23-20 Lord, Give Me More of You Jn 3:30
Hi Friends,
Transformation requires that we change our old bad habits into new good habits. What is the simplest way to do this? Listen to God’s Wisdom:
“He must become greater; I must become less.” Jn 3:30 NIV
One way we can change an old, negative habit is by just stopping it, right? But that often doesn’t work for very long because we leave a vacuum in its place. In other words, we have to fill that time up with something and, if we don’t, we will be tempted to go back to that old thing and nothing will have really changed. For example, let’s say you want to quit smoking. The habit you have formed is lighting up after you have your morning coffee. You certainly can just not reach for the cigarettes, but habits are like a force…you’ve heard the term “force of habit,” right? That’s a real thing. This habit of smoking has actual power over you that must be broken or it will cause you to repeat the habit over and over again. We fall back into our default mode and begin to smoke again. Our own “will power” can only take us so far. And even with the help of the Spirit, we can only be consistent in not performing that bad habit if we are being mindful of His Presence within us, which gives us the power to stop. If we “happen” to be thinking about God, we will be strong; but if we are not thinking about Him, we won’t. This is the inconsistency, that back and forth, we talked about last week. Again, take a moment and praise God for His Mercy and understanding! For us to have consistency, we must mature in Christ and learn to abide (live in, remain with) in Him. Unless God delivers us, by ourselves, it won’t be long before we reach for the pack of cigarettes again. There must be another way to break a bad habit! And praise God there is! The verse above gives us the answer.
Since stopping a bad habit leaves an open space that needs to be filled with something else, another way to change the routine would be to find something positive to do instead. So using the example above, we decide to stop smoking and instead, to read the Bible for say, 15 minutes after our morning coffee. (That is the best habit, by the way!) We do really well for a time, but then we get lazy and we put the Bible to the side and, sooner or later, we find ourselves searching for the cigarette pack again. Uugghhh! What went wrong?! We stopped the bad habit and tried to replace it with something good, but again, it did not last long. What did we forget? Read the verse above again. We simply forgot the order of things. We placed our focus on stopping the bad habit and starting a good one, but this keeps the focus on what I can do, instead of what God has already done. Do you see that? We are still allowing the habit to have power over us and we are still relying on “us” to somehow have power over it. The truth is, we can’t! Only God has the power to turn something dead into something filled with life. So only as we focus on God, allowing Him to be greater, can we fight this old habit, making it lesser. God will have more influence over you, breaking the hold that old habit used to have on you.
Let God be greater and everything else will automatically become lesser. Sound simple, right? Is this easy? ABSOLUTELY NOT! Again, unless God delivers you from the bad habit…which by the way is something we should be asking Him to do for us. (Mt 6:13) Does that mean God will always instantly deliver us from every bad habit if we ask? NO! But sometimes He does and, oh my goodness, how awesome it is when He does! God has graciously delivered me from several things that were sucking the life out of me and the freedom is amazing! But even if He does not deliver you, you can choose to focus on Him and work with Him to help you deliver yourself out of it. Again, most of the time, letting go of a bad habit will not be easy, it will take time. It will take intentionality…and it will take being IN Christ. But anything that causes us to “have to” be united to Christ in order to have victory is a very good thing indeed. See that? This is God taking the bad habit and working it together for good because it draws you to His side and helps you lean on and trust in Him and His power in and through you. And if we continue to stick with Him, He will become greater and that old dead habit will become lesser and you will be freer! The way to get rid of an old habit is to focus on Jesus, not the habit and not on “self.” As I have said before, whatever we place our attention on will be magnified. It will become bigger to us and overwhelming to us then we cannot fight it…alone. But if we choose to focus on Jesus, what He has already done in us- God took this dead person and brought her to LIFE! What else can’t He do?!- then we have a fighting chance against these old habits that are no longer WHO we are in Christ. We will automatically stay away from the bad habit and implement the good one instead. Put God first. Let Him be greater, have more influence over your thoughts, words and actions than anything or anyone else, and watch those old habits die off, one by one, glory by glory. (Please read 2Co 3:18) Pray with me: Lord, give me more of You!
The truth is God is already greater and our old self is already lesser. As we put Him first in our life, we are only allowing things to be the way they have always been and always should be. We are falling in line with God’s Plan and things ALWAYS go well for us when we form that good habit! It does for me and I know it will for you too…so won’t you join me?
Until we meet again, keep lifting your eyes to God, He’s closer than you think!
<>< Peace, Diane
