RISK: conquering the hold of our habits
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Sunday held such an atmosphere of celebration! By the end of our time together God had set many people free from their habits, and it was evident by the excitement that was in the air as we sang of our freedom in the song “Marvelous Light.”
Pastor began his message by talking about the everyday habits that we all have. Everything from how we sleep, on our side or on our back; our morning routine, shower first or eat breakfast first, or just get up and go; how we eat meals, mix and match or segregate; to how we drive to work. These habits can be helpful because it prevents us from having to think about everything we do and having to recreate how we do things everyday. Without these habits basic tasks in life would be exhausting! Yet according to psychologists, our habitual nature is one of our downfalls, and that is so true. We learn how to deal with life and part of that learned behavior becomes a game that can lead us down the wrong paths. So this week was about Risk: conquering the hold of our habits.
The truth is our lives have have become ruled by our habits but we play it off with sayings like “Its my only vice, but I can change it if I want to.” A vice, a fault, a defect, a short-coming, but we think its all harmless and treat it as a victim less crime, saying its just the way we are. We excuse ourselves for playing games. Yet if we were to face reality, step back and look at our lives, many of us wouldn’t be able to explain how we got to where we are. How did I get so far into a career I don’t enjoy? How did my marriage get to a place where I don’t even like coming home? We are controlled by habits, but we won’t admit it.
We want to believe we are smarter than that, or “more Christian” than that. We are “the worst kind of captive” as Beth Moore, author of best-selling Christian novel Breaking Free writes, “a prisoner unaware.” We don’t even realize we are living controlled until God begins to set us free from that which controls us! The truth is we hate being controlled by anyone or anything. We are a power obsessed society, all the way down to control over the TV remote! So this concept of being freed is foreign to us just as it was in Jesus’ day. In John 8:31-33 Jesus speaks to the Jews about the truth setting them free, yet their response is that of surprise and disdain. They don’t believe they are controlled, just like us. But here is the kicker in verse 34, the truth straight from God’s word: “Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.” You may think you have your issues under control, but no matter what you think of Jesus, He disagrees with you. You can’t sin and then take it or leave it, it takes you. This is true of all of us, listen to Paul read our mail in Romans 7:14-25. If we will get honest we will agree with him. We do the things we don’t want to do and don’t to the good things we want to do. We are controlled by our habits, our sins!
We are all controlled in different areas. Some are incredibly disciplined in organization, but can’t tame their tongue and explode in anger on those closest to them. Some appear to be in full control of their emotions, yet spend hours on the internet looking at porn. Some would give you the shirt off the back they are so generous, yet ending up own the shirt on their back because of financial irresponsibility. So in the midst of being controlled by our habits our only hope is in the forgiveness through Christ, and living by the Spirit. Romans 8:1-15 sums is up. For those in Christ there is no condemnation and if we live by the spirit we are no longer slaves to sin!
So we have the choice: to live by the power of God ( through daily reading scripture and praying), or live on the power of ourself (a life controlled by sin and habits); to live a life empowered by the presence of God or live a life empowered by self actualization. In the first there is hope and forgiveness, in the second there is only games and forgives. Choose to live in Christ and the power of the Spirit and live free.
