Friday, 29th March 2024
To guardian.ng
Search

Breaking bad habits

By Rev. John Okene
20 October 2019   |   3:51 am
Text: Romans 7:14-25 The word ‘habit’ is derived from the Latin word ‘habitus,’ which means how you are. It actually means your state or condition. Weber dictionary defines a habit as an established pattern of behaviour. It is this habit that shapes or forms our character. A bad habit is a besetting Sin. It is…

Okene

Text: Romans 7:14-25

The word ‘habit’ is derived from the Latin word ‘habitus,’ which means how you are. It actually means your state or condition. Weber dictionary defines a habit as an established pattern of behaviour. It is this habit that shapes or forms our character.

A bad habit is a besetting Sin. It is a particular sin that keeps harassing or that continues to trouble a man. Paul said in Romans 7:14-25, that anytime he desires to do something good, he discovered he couldn’t do it, but see himself doing the evil of the things he does not desire. A bad habit is like a stronghold that is difficult to break when fully established. That is why as a child of God, you must be very careful what forms your habit.

Luke 22:39, talks about the good habit of Jesus Christ. The word custom simply means tradition or what we continue to do. As said earlier, habits are things we learn to do through repetition and eventually do either unconsciously or with very little effort. First, we form habits and then they form us. We are what we repeatedly do. Jesus developed the habit or custom of going to the mountain to pray. You will find throughout the scripture that all of the great men and women of God had similar habits. They all knew the crucial importance of spending time with God.

One of the ways we can deal with bad habits is to replace it with a new habit. It is amazing how powerful our subconscious mind is. Every time we do something, your subconscious programmes it into your brain. The more you do it, the more entrenched the programme becomes. So for you to overcome bad habit you need to reprogramme your mind.

Repetition is the key to forming habits, either good or bad. So for you to overcome old bad habits you need to form a new habit and continue to repeat it until it overshadows the bad habit. The Bible tells us that darkness is swallowed up in the light. (John 1:5). Good has more power than bad. The devil always wants us to have a bad habit, but God’s desire for us is to have a good habit. So we need to repeat the new good habit you have learnt to replace the bad habit. Getting rid of bad involves learning, re-learning and unlearning.

Every evil habit in your life may it be replaced with a good habit in Jesus name.

A Roman poet, Ovid, said: “Nothing is stronger than habit. Habits are like chains that are too small to be felt until they are too strong to be broken.

People have different bad habits developed over the years, some have become so addicted to a particular behaviour that it is difficult for them to break free. Some of the habits are pornography. Some persons cannot stop watching pornography, which eventually leads them to another bad habit of masturbation.

A young boy came to me for counsel and deliverance. He confessed he was into pornography and gradually branched into masturbation. After some time, he committed incest with his sister. He did not stop at that, he went into sodomy, sleeping with same-sex. It was a pathetic case he was also guilty of bestiality. He was caught sleeping with their dog and he was beaten up seriously. He confessed to me that he could not stop having sex with animals, men or women. His case started with pornography, watching all kinds including lesbians and homosexuals, eventually, it became a stronghold. Pornography became a satanic ladder that demons used to access his life. Thank God he was set free after the deliverance.

Some persons are addicted to lies, they cannot do without telling lies. Others are kleptomania (stealing), talkativeness, borrowing (always buying things on credit), nagging, etc.

Rom. 12:2, says we should not conform to the world, especially things the world has to offer, but we should focus on the things of God, to renew our mind. Just as the young man in the story was delivered, today may your deliverance come in Jesus name.

Rev. John Okene
Divine Touch Int’l Ministries. Warri, Delta State.
dtimchurch@gmail.com
Prayerline: +2348135952623

In this article

0 Comments