08/29/2023
Do you find it difficult to develop consistency in your spiritual habits of reading God’s Word, praying, Sabbath-keeping, or journaling? I sure do.
I will often set a goal in January to read through the Bible in a year or memorize certain passages of Scripture only to get about three weeks into the New Year, and my “habits” are becoming less and less habitual.
How do we keep going when our motivation wanes or life simply gets too busy? Let me suggest an idea I came across from a book written about life and business habits that has some significant application to spiritual habits as well.
In Atomic Habits, author James Clear makes it very clear (pun intended) that one of the reasons we struggle with maintaining healthy habits is because we bite off more than we can chew. The daunting task of learning a new language, or losing weight that stays off, or exercising three times a week sounds good in theory, but once we get into the actual practice, we gradually peter out.
Clear suggests that we break our habits down into more manageable and measurable chunks. “Read before bed each night” becomes “Read one page.” “Exercise three days a week” becomes “Walk on my treadmill for ten minutes followed by ten minutes of stretching exercises.”
The idea is to make our habits accessible and sustainable from the get-go. The habit should not be overwhelming or it will become underachieving. We can grow and expand the actions of our commitments, but we need to crawl before we walk and walk before we run.
To use Clear’s words, “The point is to master the habit of showing up” (p. 163).
Pretty sound advice for anything worth doing. Fathers, master the habit of showing up at your kids’ ballgames. Husbands and wives, master the habit of showing up and having daily conversations. Jesus followers, master the habit of showing up in your daily reading of Scripture and prayer and in your weekly practice of Sabbath.
When my alarm goes off each morning, and I’m supposed to get up to exercise or run, the last thing I want to do is climb out of bed. But when I do, I remind myself that half the battle is simply showing up. Once I cross that threshold, I’m good to go.
Likewise, some days I don’t feel motivated to read my Bible or spend time with God in prayer. But if I master the habit of showing up, the habit of reading Scripture or praying comes much more easily.
I doubt if Jesus, who “was made like us in every respect” (Hebrews 2:17), always jumped out of bed with great vim and vigor “very early in the morning, while it was still dark” to go out to a desolate place to pray (Mark 1:35). But He did. He mastered the habit of showing up.
I encourage you this week to do the same. Master the habit of showing up and see how it impacts your marriage, your parenting, and your walk with Jesus Christ.
