We are all habit-makers. A habit is defined as “a settled or regular tendency or practice, especially one that is hard to give up.” Habits are repetitive actions, patterns, and practices and we are constantly making them. Habit-making is unavoidable. God made us to be habit-makers. Jay Adams says, “In considering the past, we have seen how lifestyles and patterns set by habit may become so much a part of one’s personality and behavior that he may confuse them with hereditary traits.” Habits are powerful things and over time they become engrained in us dictating our thoughts and behavior. And for all of us, we can put our attention towards (focus and desire) something, and eventually that repetitive action can and does become our habit. Our habits are a picture of us, what we value, prioritize, and even what we love. Our habits are the ultimate “tattletale” about us.
Psychology has pondered how to direct people to implement change in their lives for many years. This has led to the development of all kinds of practices of trying to change habits with things like Cognitive Restructuring (Change Thinking and Change Behavior), and the like. And yet God’s Word, which is our ultimate authority, (Jn. 17:17,2 Tim 3:16-17, Heb 4:12) gives us the right information on how a person really changes and how habits change with the proper focus.
Take the person caught up in sinful addiction. Secular thinking would say change playgrounds and change playmates, but that fails to produce the kind of change that is necessary for lasting heart change. And anything short of that misses the biblical mark. The Bible describes all our actions in this life as “worship”. How we perform at our jobs, how we deal with relationships, what we look at in entertainment, what we think about, everything we “do” in this life is an act of worship and becomes habitual. The person who is caught up in the sin of addiction is focused on their own gratification. This is self-worship (making self the most important thing) and it’s nothing short of idolatry (Exodus 20:3, Ezek. 14:6). The Bible is very clear we are to always do what we do in this life to glorify God. This is the inescapable truth of God’s Word. All our “doing” is to be directed towards God and bringing Him glory because He is completely worthy to receive all the praise and glory – because He is God. Isaiah 46:9 says, “Remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me.” And so, everything we do in this life is to be done with Him in mind, with Him as the focus of it and to bring Him glory. That is what changes when there is real biblical heart change. 1 Cor 10:31 says, “Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all for the glory of God”. John Piper’s message entitled “All Life as Worship,” says, “Worship is real, authentic experience in the heart with God, or it is nothing.” The great Puritan John Flavel says a similar thing in his book Keeping the Heart… How to maintain your love for God, “God rejects all duties which are offered him without the heart. He that performs duty without the heart, that is, heedlessly, is no more accepted to God than he that performs it with a double heart, that is hypocritical.” We are selfish, prideful sinners at the heart level and our heart desires (James 4:3) work themselves out in idolatrous practices where we do whatever we want, for our own purposes, with us at the center of it. Our desires become the most important thing. We become the most important thing, we become the focus. This is sinful and we naturally develop sinful self-focused habits and repetitive patterns.
And there needs to be change. But a person can change (modify) their behavior over and over and never really get to the “heart of things”. And many have tried this with the same results, returning to the old behaviors. After all, “Behavior Modification” is just moving behaviors around. You will get activity that way, but you won’t experience lasting spiritual stability that leads to a godly change of focus, behaviors, and habits. For the person who is “addicted” to really change, or any of us for that matter, the heart must be changed. As Mark Shaw says in his book “The Heart of Addiction”, “Whether you are a believer or an unbeliever, a life-dominated abuser or an occasional abuser, you are in need of a radical heart change.” And real change is not just a better version of yourself. The Bible uses words like “transformed” and “renewed” (Rom 12:2, Ephesians 4:22-24).Never does the Bible encourage us to reach for change that just moves behaviors around, but it speaks of the kind of change that comes from genuine heart transformation that happens at salvation and through the continuing work of God in our lives in sanctification. Real change happens in the context of God saving a person who believes by faith (Acts 16:31). God performs heart transformation in that person, giving them a new focus, new desires, new goals, and building in new habits that reflect their relationship with Christ as the chief person in their life. Paul speaks about this in 1 Cor. 6:9-11. In salvation, God saves us and begins this transformative work in our hearts. He moves us to make Him our focus and moves us away from us being the focus. He changes the focus of our worship. Before salvation, we lived our lives for ourselves and our self-gratification. Our wants, needs, and desires were the most important thing but in salvation and sanctification (making us more like Jesus) focusing on Him and worshipping Him becomes the most important thing and it is reflected in our habits. Before salvation, we would solely focus on what we wanted, and we completely served ourselves. That is utterly sinful and self-worshipping but in salvation, we are made new. The Bible says we are a “new creation” (2 Cor 5:17) and with our new status, we can serve Him with godly motivations and desires that put Him first. He changes us from the inside out, for real. No more short-sighted moving things around. No more only modifying our behavior. This is completely different than a modified version of ourselves. What good is it, if we just simply rearrange ourselves to look better but have no relationship with the One who saves and gives us real lasting change?
What is true for all of us is that we are all sinners, and we are all in need of saving (Romans 3:23). Most of us tried to change by simply moving behaviors around in the hope that this would accomplish the change in our lives and habits we long for. The reality is that the hope and help we seek are found in no other than Jesus Christ (Acts 4:12). And in Christ we experience real lasting change and transformation in our hearts and habits. So where is your focus? Have you looked to Christ to be saved? If you have been saved, are you daily setting your focus on the glory of God instead of your own desires? Habits can be changed when you day by day set your focus on God and His glory and let that guide how you live.