This week’s devotions are based on this week’s message: Let Easter Change you: Godly Habits! (WATCH HERE)
“Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become. No single instance will transform your beliefs, but as the votes build up, so does the evidence of your new identity. This is one reason why meaningful change does not require radical change. Small habits can make a meaningful difference by providing evidence of a new identity. And if a change is meaningful, it is actually big. That’s the paradox of making small improvements.” ― James Clear, Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones
Habits are powerful…even if I don’t think they are. Habits move us in a direction. The question is, in what direction are they moving us. How do you react to the statement, “Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become.” Does every action really matter? Perhaps a singular one is inconsequential, but actions repeated are votes that sway your identity in a direction that your actions take you.
What might be an example of this?
Perhaps a one time action of not brushing your teeth has little consequence. However, if you do it again…and again…and again and then wonder why you have cavities, root canals, and having teeth pulled, you realize you put a “vote” in for being a person with bad teeth, but not brushing your teeth in consecutive days, weeks, months.
“Small habits can make a meaningful difference by providing evidence of a new identity.”
Spiritual habits are not big changes that happen over night. They are little changes that happen over a lifetime. I love this quote too because it leads us to ask, “What small habits can make a meaningful difference to provide growing evidence of my identity as a child of God?”
Yesterday, we had two baptisms. These two little ones received the grace of God in their connection to the death of Jesus to bury their sins and the resurrection of Jesus to live a new life, because they have a new identity as a child of God. Romans 6:4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
So what do those little ones need in their lives moving forward that will move them toward their new identity found in Jesus? What do we need, who have been baptized, that will move us forward in our identity we find in Jesus?
Godly habits.
Habits that little by little grow us deeper into the identity we have been given as a child of God.
What are those habits?
There is not a list in Scripture that dictate the “habits of highly effective Christians.” However, there are verses that give us glimpses into what the early Christians did on a regular basis that moved them in the direction of their new identity. We are going to focus this week on the ones mentioned in Acts 2:42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
These 3100 plus believers after Pentecost realized that the high of Peter’s sermon and the waters of baptism would need ongoing reinforcement. So they were devoted to doin things that moved them deeper into the new identity they found in Jesus.
They were going to have a habit of connecting to the word of God (Apostles’ teaching).
They were going to have a habit of communing with the Lord and with people.
They were going to have a habit of communicating with God in prayer.
These are the habits that we are going to work at beginning or strengthening this week…Each small step will begin a habit that will, God-willing, move us deeper into the identity we have been given.
Apply: Simply list as many of your habits as you can. Put them in two columns. First column are those habits that move me closer to my identity in Christ. Second column moves me away from Christ to identify in something else.
Prayer: Lord thank you for the new identity you secured for my by your resurrection from the dead. Give me determination and discipline to move in the direction of that identity every day with the habits I develop. AMEN