Habits

“You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” Ephesians 4:22-24

Lately, I have been learning just how many “old self” habits I still have in my life. Often the change we hear and speak about in the church is the change that comes from accepting Jesus Christ as the Lord of your life. I have heard many times that there should be an outward and inward change in a new believer’s life but is what I don’t hear taught on very often is the continual change that should be happening in a believer’s life, whether new or mature. I love that in the verse above Paul uses the verb “‘is’ being corrupted by its deceitful desires” instead of “was” because our old self before Christ is always waging war against our new self which means it is vital that we keep fighting to put off our old self and put on our new.

You can’t avoid habitual living because this is how God made us. Habit is a great thing when purposed toward godliness but when we spend years living like the world and in the world we learn carnal habits. The definition of habit being: doing something for so long it becomes a part of you. Almost like you don’t have a choice because you are not aware you are even doing it- it’s a learned habit just like how to drive a car or how to brush your teeth. In order to find these sinful habits that have burrowed themselves inside our flesh we must place our life in juxtaposition with scripture and be willing “to not merely listen to the words and so deceive ourselves but do what it says.” (James 1:22) The Holy Spirit is our counselor and His tool to teach us is the Bible.

I can see new hope in my life now than ever before. I thought that there were some problems/weakness that I would always struggle with and had accepted them as who I was. I realize now that those so called problems or weaknesses were just learned sinful habits that I have yet to learn how to put off. Hope and Freedom! It is my responsibility to let the grace and power of God work in my life so it is my responsibility to keep tackling the old self and replacing it with the new. It is a grace-bound effort not a law-bound one. I think so many times a person is led to Jesus and taught how to accept him but then left to learn on their own how to shed their old self and know Jesus more. It takes our human effort along with the work of the Spirit, the Bible tells us so. ( I have much more to say on this topic, and I’m starting to feel the rise of words swell in me so I think it wise if I stop here. Haha)