Godly Habits Part 2, Cultivating Patterns of Righteousness

How do we cultivate habits that honor the Lord?

The first step in cultivating godly habits is to observe the habits that you see in your life now. Take inventory of the patterns that you have developed in your personal life, your relationships, and your walk with the Lord. In Galatians 6:4 Paul says,

“But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor.” (Galatians 6:4, ESV)

It is especially important for us to consciously examine our habits, because they are the actions that we think the least about. We are responsible for everything that we do, even when we do it on “auto-pilot.” This means we need to make sure our auto-pilot is calibrated with God’s truth.

• Do your daily, personal habits reflect your commitment to the truth and the priority of Christ in your life? Or, do the patterns of your life reveal that you have elevated something above the Lord?

• Do your relational habits reflect submission to the Spirit in your responses to other people? Or, do you have relational tendencies that reveal fleshly desires?

• Do your spiritual habits reflect a love for God and a dependence upon his ordained means of grace? Or, do the patterns of your spiritual life reveal immature faith?

In addition to examining the habits of your life, it is important to develop the kind of convictions that will drive you to godly habits. You are not going to pattern your life around something that you don’t really believe is important. For instance, if you don’t regularly read your Bible, it is not because you don’t have the time to do so. It is because you don’t really believe that you can’t live without God’s daily influence on your thinking. Our convictions will always drive our habits.

Notice the logic of this as it is found in Romans 12:1-2:

“I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Romans 12:1–2, ESV)

You can’t offer your life as a living sacrifice unless your mind is transformed from worldly thinking into spiritually discerning thinking. This is why you need to open up your Bible and begin to identify and form the convictions that will drive your habits.

Finally, if you want to develop habits that honor the Lord, then you to need to practice them. Habits are patterned responses that become more natural the more they are practiced. To be clear, even when we do something by habit we are still choosing to do it. The concept of habituated behavior does not remove the reality of personal responsibility. Actually, it increases our responsibility for the action since it is only a habit in our lives because we have chosen to do it over and over again. Ultimately, the only way that we can replace old habits is to choose to develop new habits. From a biblical perspective, this is frequently described using the “put off and put on” motifs.

Here’s an example:

“… to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil. Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.” (Ephesians 4:21–29, ESV)

The apostle Paul assumes/commands that a life renewed by the grace of God will result in the transformation of habits. Those who at one time habitually lied must tell the truth. Those who exhibited consistent patterns of harboring relational anger must learn to deal with their frustration in a timely manner. Those whose lives were patterned around avoiding work through illegitimate means must now work hard for a living. To summarize Paul’s teaching, life in Christ empowers and demands total renovations of our habits.

As you seek to cultivate habits that honor the Lord, one last thought might be helpful. The best place to start with the cultivation of new habits is the means of grace. The means of grace are the ordinary instruments that God has promised to use for your sanctification. God has command us to make use of His word, preaching, the church, discipleship, prayer, the ordinances, and other means of grace so that we can benefit from his sanctifying grace. When we make the means of grace the habits of our live, we are patterning our lives according to the promises of God. This is exactly what Philippians 1:27 is talking about!

Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel,