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potential consequences if you don' t
change.
3. D EVE LOP A CHANGE-OF–
BEHAVIOR PLAN. This means:
Understand the inAuences or sit–
uat ions thal spark old habit patterns
and avoid them whenever possi ble.
Abram did not shake off his past
until he moved toa new land (Gen .
12). (Sorne s ituations you may not
be able to totally cont rol or alter,
but you can change your attitude
toward them.)
Develop right and
positive
habits
or thought patterns to replace the
old damaging patterns. Repeat right
patterns as often as you can. These
soon replace the wrong pattern of
acting or feeling. You can do this
if the new pattern has sorne great
value or reward, or if failure to do
so means an unwanted result.
Don't try to taper off from a
bad habit. (Only a few situa–
tions might dictate differently.
For instance, some physically
addic ting drugs could cause seri–
ous bodily harm or even death if
sudd enly q uit "cold t urkey."
Sorne serious problems need the
assista nce and guidance of
properly qualified and knowl–
edgeable persons.) Occa–
siona ll y, giving in in–
creases rather than de–
creases the persistence of
an old habit. Recogn ize and
control self-defeati ng thought or
reasoning patterns. S uch thinking
may be, " lt ' ll be
OK,
just this
once!" or , "He does it , why can't
1?"
or, " Why deprive myself when
there are so few pleasures in life? "
Resolve not to start a pattern of
giving way t o pressures from
friends or others. This is one of tbe
toughest challenges in habit break–
ing. Keep your eyes on your goal.
Don't give in to your old habit–
even once. You' ll refire the old
habit and get hooked again. Per–
missive thoughts and actions do
count ; it is like rewelding and ener–
gizing the old cables of habit. Yet
if you do slip, don't get discour–
aged.
Jt
is
difficult to break habits,
to g ive up entrenched s ins. Mos t
people slip from time to time in the
process of struggling agains t a bad
habit. Get started again. Failure is
certai n only if you give up.
4. SEEK PROFESSIONAL HELP IF
NECESSARY TO OVERCOME PHYSI-
October 1983
CAL HABITS.
lt
is not possibJe for
this art icle to properly cover al l the
various kjnds of d amaging habits
humans can fall prey to, and to cov–
er the special considerations that
may be necessary to deal wi th
them. Sound health and financi a!,
ministerial or other help may be
needed. Yar ious pamphlets or
books dealing with specific kinds of
A habit starts to
form when we respond
to something–
pbysically, mentally
or emotionally–
several times. How
many responses
are required to
start a habit
may vary from
person to
person or with
different
kinds of stimuli.
physical problems are available and
helpful. For spiri tual bad habits,
you have J esus Christ and the Bible
to turn to for divine help.
A New Outlook Needed
Changing bad .habits often d e–
mands living different patterns of
life.
It
usually requires a totally dif–
ferent outlook on life, a sharp rede–
fining of what is mos t important in
life.
Breaking damaging habits means
seriously asking, perhaps for the first
time, " What is the true purpose of
life?" You will need to understand
what character really is and its
importance in successfulliving.
Character is coming to know
right from wrong, good from bad.
lt means admitting when you are
wrong and turning from the wrong.
lt
means determining, despite all
difficult ci rcumstances, to do the
right instead of the wrong. That
means a person must mobilize all
avai lable resources to conquer a
bad habit. And here is where the
power of the Spiri t of God comes in
to overcome bad physical and spir–
itual habits or sins. Overcoming
bad habits is one of life's supreme
challenges!
You have to ask yourself square–
ly, " Is being a s lave to a bad hab–
it-damaging my mental or physi–
cal health, being obnoxious lo my
neighbor- really the way God
wants me to live?"
"Giorify God in your body, and
in your spirit, which are God's [not
truly you rs] , " reveals Scripture.
Sorne may say, " But my bad
habits are not my fault!" Perhaps
that is true, particularly if patterns
started in early years of Jife under
wrong influences or from igno–
rance.
But the fact is, there was a time
when habits were within our con–
trol , but we
permitted
them to
reach a point where they became
out of control. I n other words,
we
caused them to develop; conversely
we
can cause them to disappear.
There are a l! kinds of annoying
¡
habi ts. Perhaps not all are neces–
sarily great faults, but then again,
maybe they could be. Such could
be chewing food with one's mouth
open or talking with food in one's
mouth. Frequent body odor in
social situations from not enough
bathing reveals a lack of sense of
decorum or lack of concern for one–
self or others. These become sin if
you contemptuo us ly refu se to
change tbem after you reali ze
them.
Tbere are sorne bad habits tha t
are outright s in .
" .. . Be not deceived: neither
fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adul–
terers, nor effeminate, nor abusers
of themselves with mankind, nor
thieves, nor covetous, nor drunk–
ards, nor revilers, nor extortioners,
shall inherit the kingdom of God"
( I Cor. 6:9-1 0).
Certain individuals develop the
habit of lying, of exaggerating or
curs ing.
Human Powe r Not Enough
The Bible reveals all of the essen–
tial laws of overcoming bad habits
mentioned in this article.
That is because the true way of
life-the way of giving- is not just
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