Develop Great Habits by David Whitten
Luke 9:23-9:23
Develop Great Habits
We have been in this series of "Going from Good to Great in God's Eyes" This has been a lesson on practical Christian living. It has been a challenge for us to consider our current commitment and a challenge us to improve in the areas of ours thought life, our Prayer life and in the area of personal sacrifice.
Today we are going to hear a challenge that will call us to develop great habits in each of the areas we have already studied.
"Winning is a habit. Unfortunately, so is losing." Vince Lombardi
"Your net worth to the world is usually determined by what remains after your bad habits are subtracted from your good ones." Benjamin Franklin
"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit." Aristotle
To develop great habits we need to be intentional in both driving out bad habits and ushering in new habits. So how do we do that? Where do we start? Well a good place to start is to take what we have learned in this study and make them Great Habits in what we do in our daily lives.
1. Develop the habit of Great Thoughts
Ben Alexander Said that there is a battleground that both God and Satan are fighting to posses and that battle ground is every man's and woman's mind and will.
Our thoughts will go one way or another we decide which way they will go. Certainly it remains our idol thoughts will almost always go to please our flesh.
James 1:14-15 but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. 15 Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.
Let me offer a few suggestions of how to Develop the habit of Great Thoughts
a. Take inventory
We can't have good godly thoughts if we don't purposely evaluate our current thoughts and sources of those thoughts.
Go through this exercise, for one day just take note actually write down any negative thoughts you may have and note what you were doing when you had that thought. either listening to music or watching TV or reading information on the internet. Just write down 10 or 20 thoughts should be enough. At the end of the day and evaluate them.
This holds a mirror up in your face and allows you to face your thought life.
This also puts in to practice 2 Cor 10:5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
b. Purge your negative or impure thoughts
You wouldn't pour a drink in to a dirty glass, would you? Neither should you attempt to have pure godly thoughts with a mind that is filled with filth.
The best way to start great thoughts it to trim the fat out of your entertainment and information diet.
Another personal challenge is to take an actual fast for a weekend from entertainment and information mediums. Start with Prayer and ask God for direction. Replace that time with reading good godly books, read the bible, listening to nothing but good and godly music, Do something for someone else, do some activities either by yourself or with your family . Go outside in nature and take note of God's beauty, tell him about it.
After your experience take note on your thoughts. You'd be surprised the reduction of negative and impure thoughts.
Seriously consider the removing some things that create negative or impure thoughts.
c. Be intentional in regularly feeding things that are Good and Godly
. find time to read godly books
. Read your bible daily
. Join or Start a small group that studies the bible
. listen to Godly music
. use your remote, change the station when things come on tv that are not good. Or better turn the TV off and do something else.
. engage in conversations about God
. walk away from conversations that tear down others or become impure and avoid conversations with people who criticize or complain
. Memorize scripture Start with Philippians 4:8
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable if anything is excellent or praiseworthy think about such things.
2. Develop the habit of Praying Great Prayers
Jesus gave us a pattern for prayer but putting prayer in to our daily habit is a discipline that most of us struggle with.
If like to offer a few suggestions of how to take your prayer life from good to great.
a. Plan for it
"If you fail to plan, then you plan to fail.†- Harvey MacKay
Plan a time and a place for prayer every day. If you are a morning person pray in the morning then pray in the morning, if you are a night owl then pray at night. Do it daily. Just start it and make it a priority.
You might find it helpful to have a place you go to think, meditate on God and pray. Don't be afraid to let your family or coworkers know that that is what you are doing. Doing this will accomplish a few things 1. They will leave you alone and offer you some uninterrupted quiet time. 2. They may have a prayer concern that will want you to pray about and allow an opportunity to witness to your friends. 3. It will help you keep accountable to others. One warning here, AVOID SELF RIGHTEOUSNESS and HYPOCRISY. Attitudes of piousness will ruin your witness quick. Hypocrisy will turn off people to your witness. If you struggle with either of these I suggest you just quietly pray in your place not calling attention to yourself.
b. Make a Prayer list or keep a prayer Journal
As things come up in your day have a place where you write down the items you can pray for. Note cards or a small tablet Some people have made it a discipline to keep a prayer Journal they will write out their prayers and date them this gives them the ability to look at what they prayed for and see how God has answered their prayers.
c. If you tell someone you are going to pray for them be sure to do it. It can have a greater impact than you realize
ILL Mrs. Cameron
d. Make it a relationship rather than a ritual.
e. Pray for and with your spouse.
There is something about the bond that is created when people pray together. When you pray for your spouse God will do some incredible things that you never thought possible. Do this I dare you and you will see your spouse as the precious gift they are to you.
When you pray with your spouse you will add a dimension to your relationship that you may never have known that was there. I love to hear my wife pray. In her prayers I hear her devotion and faith in the God and savior we both love. It builds for my love for our God and for her.
Also there is something about praying with someone when you have a desperate need that brings about action.
Mat 18:18 Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.
ILL. Prayer for a car
3. Develop the habit of Making Great Sacrifices
When we talk about making great Sacrifices we are talking about making a personal decision to do something for the Kingdom of Christ. What that looks like for you will be different for what that looks like for me.
Jesus said - deny yourself and take up your cross daily
This is a clear, contingent and costly call. For some it has meant leaving career and family and to become a missionary in Africa like my friends Jeff Hostetter and Patrick Kline. For others it has been a severe life change that meant they would live right where they are to declare the glory of God and impact the world with the blessings that Gods has freely given them like this lady named Jamie in David Platt's book " Radical" (ch 4 p. 84)
God may call you to go on a mission trip, he may ask you to serve in a homeless shelter, he may ask you to defend the plight of the thousands being sold in to human trafficking. He may ask you to start a small group, volunteer at church. We would be surprised the impact we would have If we would just allow god to move in us to do his service.
My challenge is to stop for a minute doing life the way you have always and sacrifice a little of your own comfort in order to bless someone. Have you ever thought that the reason God has blessed you is that you may be a blessing to someone else. How are you going to do that?
Watch this video
You can find it at this link : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoicm4wnQ4c
