Habits

Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. (1 Corinthians 9:25)

We have been talking about New Year’s resolutions and creating new habits. As you embark on this journey, think of your spiritual journey as training rather than a test. In tests there are only two outcomes: pass or fail. Viewing life as a test is sad and stressful because we are bound to fail. We may succeed for a day, a week, or even months but, guaranteed, there’s going to be a day when we fail. Seeing life as a test makes us see our attempts at life as failure. That’s not helpful.

Life is training. You see, in training, there are days when you feel sick or you just don’t feel like going to the gym to train or go on a run. But that doesn’t mean your training has failed. It just means you had a bad day, a sick day, or a tired day. So, you wake up for another day and get back into training. As long as you keep at it, you are succeeding.

A year from now you will be looking at resolutions and you will have a list of excuses as to why you failed again. Or, you will have a record of progress as you have been training in the habits of reading God’s word and prayer.

So, what will it be for you? Doesn’t the record of progress sound a whole lot better than a list of excuses?