Combining Christian Culture and Human Habits
Good Morning Friends,
Yesterday I got up and wrote a devotional. Today I am up writing again. I have been doing this for three years now and it is an example in my life of Combining Christian Culture and Human Habits.
Scripture: Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.
Proverbs 22:6 (NIV)
By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, competing against one another, envying one another.
Galatians 5:22-26 (NRSV)
Message: The only time in my life that I got up and made my bed was at Christian Service Camp in Southern Illinois as a child. It never really took. To this day I make my bed just before I get in it to sleep. Still there is something to be said for the discipline and joy of accomplishing something first thing in the morning. The habits we choose and even those we discard determine our impact in the world. The challenge comes in developing the capacity to see…to develop in some cases and to forestall in others the habits we are forming. Here we might just learn, and hopefully not too late that habits can be tyrannical…that to err is human but it takes a partnership with the devil to remain willful in error. Friends, there is a purpose in the habits we form but also a struggle. There is no easy formula. Perhaps the key though is learning that habits have an inward focus but also an outward one. So today think and act in a spirit of giving, sharing in fellowship and faith by serving in the fruit of the Spirit. Perhaps all that stuff with making the bed was just a clever metaphor about the habits we form.
Pray we realize we reap what we sow. Pray we realize that it is not too late to start a good habit. Pray we have a God forward focus and the divine assurance of victory but also a people focus serving using our spiritual giftedness. Pray we develop the habit of holiness. Pray we pray and worship and read the Bible but never be satisfied to love God without learning to love each other. Pray we develop habits that thrive at the corner of Christian love and human need
Daily Devotionals 