Where Are Your Habits Leading You

Habits. We start hearing about habits from such an early age, usually associating habits with the phrase "bad habits" such as biting your finger nails, picking your nose, smoking, spitting, or belching. But habits can be a good thing as well.

As a youth pastor I began speaking to students and young children about the importance of establishing good habits such as the habit attending church and youth group, the habit of daily Scripture reading and daily prayer. It is important that these habits are started early so that these young adults will carry them on throughout their entire lives. As Proverbs 22:6 says: "Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it."

Now as a Pastor of a church I find myself making these same statements and presenting the same case to grown adults. For many adults, this is the first time they have ever heard of the importance of Christian habits, but for some individuals, this is something that has been taught to them from a very early age. One Scripture that pastor's everywhere love to quote is Hebrews 10:25: "Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching."

But I don't want to talk about the habit of attending church, attending church doesn't get us the "prize" that Paul writes of in Philippians 3. I want to talk about the rest of the habits found in Hebrews 10:25 and the surrounding verses.

"And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching. If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God." (Hebrews 10:24-27)

I understand how hard and how harsh these words sound, but they are straight from God's Word and so they are for us and they are for now. So, what are the "habits" we are called to in just these four verses?

• The habit of spurring one another on to love and good deeds - this is outreach and service
• The habit of meeting together regularly - this is worship and fellowship
• The habit of encouraging one another - this is teaching and training
• The habit of turning our back on sin - this is commitment

You see, we often look to the "habit" of loving God and loving others, the "habit" of doing good deeds for others, the habit of attending church and enjoying the fellowship of our brothers and sisters in Christ, and the "habit" of encouraging one another to stay the course as our duty as God's children, and rightly so. But, it's important that we realize that without making it a "habit" to turn our back to sin, to  no longer deliberately sin against God and His creation, we lose the sacrifice for sin that has been made for us, that is Jesus Christ. Without making it a "habit" to turn our back  to sin, we trade our eternal reward for judgement that leads to raging fire and separation from God.

Take a look at your habits, the good habits, the bad habits, and all those in between, and ask yourself where those habits are leading you.