Habits

Habits are strange things aren't they. You see many times what we call habits aren't really truly habits. Some are some aren't. Psychologist tell us that it takes 3 weeks to form a habit of daily practice. In other words, if you want to get in the habit of exercising on a daily basis you will have to make it a daily practice for 3 weeks before it truly becomes ingrained in you. 2 peter 1:8 says, "If these things are yours and abound, you will neither be barren nor unfruitful.
What this verse is saying is that if you develop good God-driven habits on a daily basis such as reading your Bible, praying through the day and listening to God in silence you will not live a life that is barren or unfruitful. That having been said what is a habit? What is the definition of a habit? Well Webster-Merriam puts it like this:

1 - manner of conducting oneself : bearing
bodily appearance or makeup
2 - the prevailing disposition or character of a person's thoughts and feelings : mental makeup
3 - a settled tendency or usual manner of behavior
4 - a behavior pattern acquired by frequent repetition or physiologic exposure that shows itself in regularity or increased facility of performance
an acquired mode of behavior that has become nearly or completely involuntary
Those are all of the different ways that the dictionary puts the word habit. All of which are pointing to the fact that it takes a lot of repitition for something to become a habit. So I ask you this, is talking to God on a daily basis and praying through your day a habit? Or do you think about needing to do it and then go and do it? Definition #4 lists it as a behavior pattern acquired by frequent repetition or phsyiologic exposure that shows itself in regularity. THat leads me to think that we need to be exposing ourselves to people who are performing the Christian disciplines as habits to enhance our habits.
The bottom line is we should be so intune to God that we automatically find ourselves in His presence through prayer and reading His word. It should not be a thought that occurs and it should not be an appointment we have and keep, it's a habit that happens completely subliminally as our minds become programmed by our hearts. It's a scary thing when we let that happen, instead for the most part we are letting our minds program our hearts into it and that is completely opposite of what God wants and needs from us. So create some good habits and watch them become real habits that don't need any reminders.
Have an awesome day!