God is our refuge and strength,
….an ever-present help in trouble. Psalm 46:1 NIV
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We are creatures of habit.
I have a student on my bus who faithfully takes his band instrument home every evening and then gets on the bus with it again every morning. I find it interesting that every single time they go to get in their seat, they lead with their instrument…then they pause, pull the instrument back out, slide in the seat themselves, bringing the instrument in with them on the outside of the seat.
You think that over time they would learn to do it the way they want to do it first instead of doing it in reverse each time. It’s a habit.
We are creatures of habit.
I have a set routine getting ready for work every day. I’m probably a bit obsessive in that I set things out and complete each task in a certain order. My final alarm goes off at quarter after and I know that in order to do everything that needs to be done, I need to complete certain things by the bottom of the hour and then I need to step into the shower 15-20 minutes later, wrapping things up by the top of the hour. I post my blog (written the day before) soon thereafter, finish getting dressed, and then step into the kitchen to get my breakfast. It’s a habit.
We are creatures of habit. We do things certain ways at certain times. We all do it. In regard to the most mundane of things, we do it. So, my question is, if we can do that with just about anything we choose, why do we so often not choose to apply it to the spiritual side of our lives?
Why can’t we set aside a portion of time to pray every day? Even if we set aside 15 minutes every morning, I am certain it would impact our hearts and minds greatly.
Wouldn’t we all benefit from developing a habit of responding to negativity in our lives by say stopping before we retort in like manner and instead pause…in a predetermined reaction, not retort but just let it go, to hand it over to God instead of feeling that we need to retaliate.
We just need to apply our tendencies towards being creatures of habit into areas that would build our relationships with God instead of tearing them down. Or on the flip side of that thought, what if we strove to tear down the walls we build between us and our Savior and instead place conduit between ourselves and the situations we find ourselves in to allow Him to flow out, flooding the negativity with love pure and simple?
And those are just two very simple examples.
As I think back to my opening passage of Scripture, it’s appropriate, isn’t it? Read it once more, except this time for the Amplified Bible.
God is our refuge and strength [mighty and impenetrable],
A very present and well-proved help in trouble. Psalm 46:1 AMP
Too many times we shy away from change for the better because we are weak but if we remember the simple truth of Psalm 46:1, we realize it’s not totally up to us but that we can tap into God’s vast reserves. He is our refuge. He is our strength – mighty…impenetrable! A very present and well-proved help in trouble. Oh, that it might be so! Become a creature of habit!
May 11th, 2021, Tues, 8:09 pm
