Habits

 

Psalm 135:18

Those who make them become like them,

so do all who trust in them.

Thought for the day

What’s your worst habit? What’s your best habit? It’s a strange direction to go in with today’s verse because in context, today’s verse is about idolatry. Idols are dead so those who make them become like them as do those who worship them. They die.

 

But maybe it’s not such a strange direction to go in. After all the habits we have are very often as a result of what we hold dearest. A morning quiet time can be a habit because of our desire to spend quality time with God. Watching porn can become a habit because of our desire to satisfy our own needs, often at the cost of our meaningful relationships. Our habits in many ways reflect our priorities.

 

So what are your habits? Good and bad. What do your habits tell you about yourself? I think we can learn a lot about ourselves when we think about our habits and question them. So today as you go through your day ask God to reveal to you what your priorities are as reflected in your habits. If you have a habit of being late for everything, ask God to show why that is. It may be as simple as getting a diary. If you have good habits still ask God to check your motivations because even good habits can be motivated by the wrong reasons, just go read Jesus’ parable about the two men praying in the synagogue.

 

Our habits will either make us or break us. Lets check them with God today shall we?

 Psalm 130:6

I wait for the Lord

 

Thought for the day

There used to be a car advert in South Africa for a small car from a well-known German car manufacturer. The advert song had the lines ‘waiting, waiting, waiting for the bus. Where’s the bus?’ The advert was a person standing at a bus stop in the rain as this little car drove past. Cut to the people in the car nice and dry and warm and unbelievably happy. It wasn’t a particularly original advert that’s for sure.

Two things come to mind when I read today’s verse. The first is the iine from the advert about waiting (as if waiting is such a bad thing) and the second thing is how we have become so accustomed to things happening immediately that we are no longer able to wait for things. And that’s a big challenge for disciples of Jesus because as I’m sure we’ve experienced God’s timing is very rarely our timing.

How many of us can honestly say with the Psalmist ‘I wait for the Lord’? The reality is that the vast majority of believers cannot say they wait for the Lord, because they are time poor and if we’re honest God is not always our top priority.

We need to take time and wait for God sometimes. We need to take time and be still and listen to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. We need to take time and just enjoy being with God. We need to stop and wait, even if it’s a bus stop in the rain because fast and convenient is not always the best way.