Good habits; where do they come from, how are they formed, and what makes it good? I am setting out to form a new good habit. It is going to be my challenge to wake up at 6:30 AM each morning, have my morning bible study, write about my thoughts from said bible study, and then go for a run. I am well into morning one and I can assure you this will be difficult for me as I am not a natural-born morning person nor am I a runner at heart. I do think this is a good habit that will have great impact on my life both spiritually and physically.
The subject of “Good Habits” however is not simply to introduce what my good intentions are. This is also what I gleaned from my morning bible study. I am starting to read through the book of Judges, and right from the start we have this description of the people of Israel being disobedient. God had told them to go into the promised land and completely take it over in every aspect. The Israelite’s however had a bad habit of letting the people of the land stay as inhabitants which they were told not to do. Why is this such a problem? What difference does it make if the Israelite’s let original people stay? We find out rather quickly that this matters for two reasons. The first is the most obvious and that is that God had told them not to. When God speaks, we listen that’s it! There is no arguing or negotiating. The second reason this matters as if the first reason wasn’t enough, is that the people who lived in the land were pagan people who worshiped pagan gods. This got the people of Israel in trouble real fast, as they began to forsake the one true GOD, and started worshiping the god’s of the original inhabitants.
Bad habits are hard to break. The people of God have always had trouble breaking the habitual nature of our sin flesh. This morning I was reminded that God desires good habits from me, He desires faithfulness, obedience, willingness, discipline, and humility. I pray that I will not be like the people described in the beginning of Judges, a people who make it a habit of being disobedient. I pray that God show me what bad habits I have developed, and that he would break me of those things.
