What does the Bible say about habits?

This principle of practice is laid down in Romans 6:19. Just as a wicked person by practising iniquity becomes more wicked—"iniquity unto iniquity"—he says: so a good man if he practises righteousness arrives at holiness. The process is universally recognized. Understanding the theory of music does not in itself constitute a person a brilliant pianist. Only constant and long continued practice will bring the master touch which no one can mistake. Reading the rules of cricket and understanding precisely how all the different strokes are to be made will not in itself enable a batsman to make a hundred runs in a first-class match. He can only achieve such results by practice. So it is true that just as a man becomes an adept in wickedness by practice, a man likewise becomes adorned with every Christian virtue in the same way. For the simple reason, as someone has said, "our acts re-act upon ourselves." Only in this way can the new man within us be developed. An athlete puts on muscle by exercise. By exercise of another kind a Christian puts on "kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness," etc.

In Romans 12 we are taught that in presenting our bodies a living sacrifice, we prove the true character of the will of God. Every member of our bodies is to be at the disposal of God for His will. The bodies of the victims on Jewish altars would nevermore serve the will of any but God alone: thus, our bodies, not dead, but living, are nevermore to serve sin; but are ever to be at God's disposal. This is a holy service, acceptable to God; intelligent service, not dictated by the will of the flesh, but in obedience as led by the Spirit. Consonant with Galatians, verse 2 exhorts us not to be conformed to this world; and it is by avoiding conformity to the world that we are delivered from it. But something more is required to achieve this; we are to be transformed by the renewing of the mind, so as to prove that the will of God is good, perfect, and acceptable. The mind plays a very important part in our lives. If the mind is occupied with the things of the world, we shall be conformed to the world; but if the mind is engaged with the things of God, the mind will be renewed, and we shall acquire new habits of thought; we shall think in different channels of thought, and the life in result will be altogether different. This is of immense import, and we do well to ponder it. Anything of the world that enters the mind; whether its literature through the eye, or its music through the ear, yields its quota to conforming us to the world. Does not the blood on the ear of the leper tell that we have been separated from this world, and the blood on the ear of the priest tell that God has claimed us for Himself by the death of His Son? God's will is not acceptable to the worldly Christian; it condemns the things he is seeking to enjoy. Such may believe and speak of the good and perfect character of God's will; but only those who have been transformed by the renewing of the mind, have proved experimentally that the will of God is good, acceptable, and perfect.

Next to former friends, our greatest danger lies in old habits, tastes of the first Adam, which are so easily re.awakened in us. What a sad thing to be a Christian, and yet to go on with the ways that we allowed before knowing the Lord! The Cretians by nature were liars, and they remained so although converted (Titus 1:12-13); but they were to be rebuked sharply, because they were not walking according to the new man, or in dependence on the Spirit of God.

We look at acts; God looks at habits. I may perhaps today be walking quietly on under a cross under which I once winced. Christ alone can take the clay, put it on the wheel, and bring it out a vessel to His own praise. He nips the evil, and this is a very solemn thing. "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure." God is working in you, take care how you walk. If God works in me I may well be confident: but if God works in me I must also be careful.

In connection with a garment, leprosy speaks of the sinful nature’s activity as occasioned by the circumstances in which we move. If our activities are not according to God’s holiness, they will induce habits unsuited to His character and nature. It is not of a person’s natural characteristics that we speak, but of a course of conduct and habits to which the person conforms, thinking perhaps that they are necessitated by the circumstances in which he is. How dreadful this bondage to conditions that are not of God.

Character is built up step by step. Single actions repeated, form habits, and habits form character. At an early age his parents sent him to Oxford. In those days boys of fifteen years of age were entered as students, so it is likely that Wycliffe began his career at Oxford about the year 1340.

Some are afraid of making a "rule"; but I think they have more reason to be afraid of breaking it when it is made. I hope none of you would seek to excuse yourselves for passing a whole day without prayer by the plea of not wishing to be in bondage to a rule. For myself, I must risk the charge of being somewhat commonplace by saying that I think good habits are very good things to possess, and bad habits are very bad things to get hold of and worse things to get rid of; while the best way to avoid bad habits altogether is to acquire good ones.

Since the divine instructions to us are that we be transformed by the renewing of our minds, we may well enquire how we may get our minds renewed. The answer is, by getting them formed according to God's thoughts and forsaking our own. And how shall this be? By soaking them in God's Word, which conveys to us God's thoughts. As we read and study the Word in prayerful dependence on the enlightening of the Spirit of God, our very thinking faculties, as well as our way of thinking, become renewed.

Verse 23. "And be renewed in the spirit of your mind." It is by his mind that a man is led; while his mind, in its turn, is governed by some ruling object. Self is that object to the natural mind to the renewed mind it is Christ. To live no longer to ourselves, but unto Him who died for us and rose again, is the desire of the inner man. But intuitive desire is aided in its struggle against the contradictory tendencies of the flesh by positive exhortation. The development of the mind of Christ within us is to be effected by obedient watchfulness on our parts. The meekness and gentleness of Christ are habits not to be acquired in a day, though the germ of every practical grace lies hidden in the life we have in Him. Mind and conscience are in a close moral connexion. By the renewal of the one, the other is maintained in purity. "Let every one be fully persuaded in his own mind" (Rom. 14:5) is a maxim of practical conduct, which cannot be too deeply impressed upon us all.

The whole life would be affected. Let us suppose that an ordinarily busy Christian young man has been accustomed to sleep until the last possible minute in the morning, so that he must hurry through everything to get to his business in time; who has spent his spare moments on the train or elsewhere in aimless conversation or reading of questionable things; whose evenings are spent in mere social intercourse, often leading to associations and amusements which cannot but injure the soul, and retiring late at night with conscience none too much exercised, to repeat the same experience day after day. Will such an one grow? Need we be surprised if he makes no progress?

Let us now suppose that he determines to adopt the fifteen minute schedule of Bible study, and sets apart the time in the morning. He rises and begins the work. Perhaps the first feeling will be one of discouragement and distance, and he will be tempted to throw it all aside and resume his more easy-going manner but he has a conscience toward God and perseveres. Occasionally he "oversleeps," but at the end, we will say, of two weeks, the habit is in a fair way of being established to rise a half hour earlier than was his custom in order that he may not be unduly hurried. Instead of a wild rush at breakfast, with perhaps slips of temper and forgetfulness, a certain quietness and happiness of spirit takes its place. Something has interested him in his work and a glance at the newspaper suffices instead of the absorbing perusal of columns of worthless matter. Lunch hour finds him eager to finish something that he began in the morning, and his earlier rising makes him ready for retirement earlier than before. We say nothing now of the effect of the word of God upon his conscience and heart, but merely its tonic influence upon his habits. In a year's time, can any of us doubt that the effect upon his whole life will be so marked that his profiting will appear unto all?