I used this to my advantage several years ago when I got in the habit of working out at lunch three days a week. I reached that point fitness gurus talk about where I didn’t ask whether I was going to the gym; it was Monday, so I needed to pack my workout clothes. I got into a routine and stayed with it. I was feeling better and looking better. I was happy; my wife was happy. It went on that way for a couple of years. Then circumstances changed. Life broke the habit.
After that habit fell apart, I tried to reestablish it differently and failed. And again. And again.
Have you noticed this? It's so much easier to build a bad habit than a good one, and so much easier to break a good habit than a bad one.
Why is it easier to pick up bad words than to delete them from your vocabulary? Why is it easier to become a pessimist than an optimist? Why is it so easy to break your habit of daily Bible reading but so hard to put down your phone?
All this comes from our fallen human nature. Our sinful flesh innately tends toward dissolution. We naturally love whatever is destructive to our souls.
Paul told Timothy, “Train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come” (1Tim 4:7-8). Hebrews tells us that the mature “by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil” (5:14).
We can train ourselves to be godly. We can use the power of habits to get us into the scriptures on a daily basis. We can train ourselves to pray in certain circumstances almost reflexively. We can condition ourselves to choose to do the good thing in a variety of circumstances.
But those habits are the most fragile of all. A years-old pattern of daily Bible reading, a well-established habit of prayer, a consistent choice to only speak the positive about people — these things are easily disrupted.
So we should always be on guard to protect those habits. If you’ve built a godly habit around a daily routine, when that routine is disrupted, your habit is in danger: consciously protect it or look for ways to shift it to a new, consistent time slot. Be mindful of human nature; when good habits become inconvenient, they die quickly.
But even when they are broken, they can be reestablished. In time. With a lot of hard work.
After years of fits and starts, I think I have finally gotten myself back into a routine of working out. It was hard. I had to go with a more expensive option. But I’m getting back into a habit. I feel better. However, I feel my nature resisting it. It will be so easy to break. So I have to be careful. And how much better shape would I be in today if I hadn’t gone years without having a workout habit in place? I would hate to see myself after five years without a Bible reading habit.
Few people are accidentally healthy. No one is accidentally godly. Make human nature work for you, but be on guard, because it always wants to stab you in the back.
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