A HABIT of Trust

I am working on developing a new habit. Actually two new habits. One is to journal every day. The other is to keep a tidy desk. The journaling is easier than the desk one. Full disclosure, I have been trying to develop these two habits for a long time. I start and fail, give it up for a couple of months, even years, and then start again. I mention this only to encourage you to never give up. What is now different than in the past? I am working a system, instead of the goal. I spoke about this a lot last Sunday. If you missed the message, take a listen online. Failure is not because the goal is bad, or the intention is lacking, or the effort is poor, but because you do not have a system. This time I am employing a system.

And it is working. Remember we talked about the four elements in habit forming. Cue - make it obvious, Craving – make it attractive, Response – make it easy, and Reward – make it satisfying. Today’s blog is about the third one, our response. It is easy to want to create a positive habit in our life. Wanting and doing are not the same thing. There is a little verse in the Bible that applies to this concept. It goes like this: faith without works is dead, (James 2:26).

Often I hear people talk about how they want to lose weight, stop smoking (insert any addiction here), practice a daily spiritual reflective time with God, save money etc. etc. So they will do the research, go visit a doctor, buy healthier food, in other words, they have faith for it, but then when it comes to actually doing it, the action is missing. Sometimes we can be so busy developing the best approach, that we give ourselves this illusion of doing something. We need to do something that actually produces a result, or a reward - the last element in the habit creating formation.

It starts with the faith to change something, to start something, to make a difference; but if it is going to have any chance of success; it requires some action. Failure is uncomfortable. We avoid it. Yet some of our habits may be perpetuating failure. Why do we do it? Because it is easier to do something we know than to try something new. Our fear is that we do not want to be disappointed, embarrassed, or even humiliated.

So we talk about some day, but never actually put into action what we believe God has for us today.

This coming Sunday, I will be concluding the Habit Series with learning the new habit of Trusting God. Trusting God in every circumstance demonstrated by our actions. This new habit may be the most exciting all. The rewards of trusting God are out of this world. (pun intended)

I am looking forward to journeying with you on the creation of learning the habit of trusting God.

Jim Reimer, Pastor

October 31, 2019