How To Break A Bad Habit

Christ] who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13). God will be with you—to know Him is to TRUST him—Total/Tenacious Reliance Upon Scriptural Truth. Seven Strategies for Overcoming an Addiction: What bad habit do you have at this time? Be honest. Be specific. Tell yourself the truth. Trust God and find an accountability partner that can encourage, challenge, and pray for you. A long journey begins with a single step. What steps do you need to take to replace the bad habit with a good habit? For example, “today I will exercise, read, or learn an instrument for 30 minutes instead of watching TV or playing video games.” “Today, I will begin the day with my face in The Book (Bible) not in Facebook.” Renew your mind with the good not bad news. Your mind is like a garden, whatever you put in it will grow. Sow seeds of positive not negative reinforcement (Philippians 4:8). Write down your objectives and steps to achieve your goals. Be specific. Set godly goals. If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail. Then, share these objectives and steps with your accountability partner(s)—friends and/or family. Protect yourself from evil influences on all your media devices. Weekly pray together about your challenges and for God’s grace and persistence to overcome. Memorize scriptures that can encourage you throughout your day—ones that help you replace the lies of the evil one with the truth from our heavenly Father. Remember, there was a reason you started the habit in the first place. What basic need were you trying to satisfy? Was it your… Identity—Who am I? Belonging—Who wants me? Or, Purpose—What is my calling? Nothing or no one is big or eternal enough to satisfy these needs. Only God is. Choose to meet your need for security, significance, and love in God alone as His child (see John 1:12). We were created with these legitimate needs, but not to satisfy them in illegitimate ways that God calls sin. In short, you can overcome any addiction (1 Corinthians 10:13) if you’re willing to get help from the One who understands you more than anyone else does—a loving Father who sent Jesus to die for you. Someone who was willing to die for you rather than live without you. “Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Romans 10:13). It’s appointed once for us to die and then comes judgment (Hebrews 9:27). If you wait, it will be too late. Love in Christ, Tom Tofilon Pastor/Author of “Praying to God our Father”