New Year’s Day is a great time for beginnings; a time to turn the page and start fresh. There is a strong impulse to make resolutions of change for the coming year. Most of our resolutions involve habits. Although we often think of habits as being good or bad there are some that are neither. For instance, it has been 51 years since I was in the military but I still step off with my left foot first. There would be no advantage for me to step off with my right foot so why bother changing that old habit?
New Year’s resolutions are often vows to start good habits like daily exercise, daily time in God’s word and praying or daily time with family members loving and encouraging each of them. There is a simple way to form any good habit we want. Psychologists tell us if we do something for 21 days it will become a habit. I don’t know what is so special about that number, but I have tried it and it works. We may have already formed some good habits without even realizing it. Buckling our seat belt in the car is a very good habit. It could not only save our life but also keep us from paying a fine. Aristotle had this to say about good habits, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act, but a habit.” God’s word tells us that love is not an act but a habit we should develop. (II John 1:5-6 and numerous other passages.)
New Year’s resolutions may also be vows to end bad habits. When we think about our habits we seem to gravitate to the bad ones out of guilt or conviction. Eliminating a bad habit is not as simple as starting a new one. Simply stopping a bad habit for 21 days won’t work. We must replace it with a good habit for 21 days to help reprogram our minds. Some bad habits have become full blown addictions. We need help freeing ourselves from addictions. Through prayer and the power of the Holy Spirit, Cleansing Stream classes at CLC help free us from bad habits, addictions and pain or guilt we continue to carry from our past.
I began smoking cigarettes while I was in the Air Force. It was a common bad habit of the 1960s. Fortunately, I didn’t smoke enough to develop a strong physical addiction to nicotine so when I came back home to look for a job and start married life God filled my life with so many positive changes that I didn’t even think about buying a pack of cigarettes. I have friends who have experienced a very strong addiction to nicotine who testify to the miraculous power of God healing their body and setting them free with no craving or withdrawal symptoms in answer to prayer. God wants to release us from physical, mental or spiritual addictions. All we have to do is ask for His help.
If we rely on our own will power to keep our resolutions for this New Year, we will fail within a few days as usual. However, if we ask God to help us make our list of resolutions and then guide us through those changes we can look forward to a year of great improvement and success.
Happy New Year Jim! Great post! The reminder to keep God in the process of our resolutions instead of relying on our own discipline to sustain us is so true in forming good habits.