Overcoming Bad Habits: The Power of the New You in Christ 🙏

You are a new creation in Christ. The new has come! Yet, let's face it: those bad habits often try to resurface, triggered by the pressures and stress of life. These persistent old patterns can leave you feeling stuck, but the key to overcoming them isn't in focusing on the failure—it's in harnessing God's power within you to focus on who you are truly meant to be.

The journey to freedom requires intentionality, commitment, and a shift from external control to an inside-out transformation, rooted in a new pattern of thinking and action.

🔑 Focusing on Your New Identity

The first step in leaving behind bad habits is to get crystal clear on your new identity in Christ. Focusing on who you want to be—the "new me"—and the godly habits you want to install is more effective than constantly dwelling on the bad habits you're trying to fix.

Change Your Focus: The more you try to fix bad habits, the worse they often get. Instead, focus on the positive person you are becoming and the actions you want to take.
The Power of the New Creation: Your true self is the new creation in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17), equipped with God's power to show up on a regular basis. This new life is already here; your job is to align your habits with that reality.
Renew Your Mind: Transformation begins with renewing your mind (Romans 12:2). This means actively replacing negative thoughts with godly thoughts and meditating on God's Word to shift your focus away from unhealthy desires.

The Three-Step Process to Overcome Triggers

When life pushes your "buttons" and you slip back into an old pattern, try this simple, powerful three-step process to get back on track:

1. Forgiveness on Three Levels

Slipping up can lead to feelings of condemnation, which can keep you stuck in a bad pattern. To break the cycle, forgiveness must flow in three directions:

Receive God's Forgiveness: Humbly go to God and receive the forgiveness He freely offers. Acknowledge that you missed it and ask for His mercy.
Forgive Yourself: This is often the hardest part. You must give yourself grace and stop beating yourself up. God's forgiveness and grace should flow through you, not be blocked by self-condemnation.
Reconcile with Others: If your actions hurt someone, let forgiveness and grace flow out to the people around you.

2. Give Thanks

After forgiving and receiving forgiveness, give thanks that the power God put within you is more than enough to reprogram the old pattern and help the new you show up.

3. Ask God to Help You Grow

Pray simply: "God, help me grow what You put within me," so that the new way of doing things becomes rooted, grounded, and embedded in your heart. This invites God's active power to take over your efforts.

🛠️ The Power of Physical Triggers: Creating New Habits

Overcoming bad habits isn't just a mental exercise; it's about integrating your spirit, soul, and body through physical action. Just reminding yourself mentally is far less effective than using a physical trigger—something you do that completes the loop in your body and mind, creating a powerful memory and new pattern.

The goal is to provide a physical action that sends a feedback signal into your system, strengthening the new, desired habit. This concept aligns with how God often set up physical reminders for His people—like placing symbols on doorposts—to keep His promises and covenant ever-present in their minds. For instance, taking Communion is one of the most powerful triggers, as it physically engages us in the spiritual remembrance of our covenant with God by giving us something physical to do.

Creating Positive Triggers in Your Daily Life

You can transform mundane or challenging moments into powerful reminders by attaching a spiritual truth or desired behavior to a specific physical action:

Starting the Day with Rejoicing: When the water hits you in the shower, let that be your signal to declare, "This is the day the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it!". This immediately sets a spiritual tone and gets you into the light.
Affirming God's Provision: When you are paying for something, use the moment of tapping your debit/credit card or putting it into the reader as a reminder: "God supplies all my needs". This triggers the remembrance of God's provision.
Physically Flushing Away Failure: If a bad habit is triggered or you slip up, create a specific physical motion—like hitting a mini-flusher, tapping a wall, or tossing a crumpled piece of paper—to mentally "flush away" the negative thought and condemnation. This gives you a physical release, allowing you to move on with a fresh mindset.
Exercising Your Faith (and Body): Use physical exercise to remind yourself of spiritual strength. Every time your hands touch a barbell or dumbbell, let it be a reminder that "It's God's energy working in me, the Father in me does the work". This transforms physical effort into a spiritual exercise of faith and dependence on God's strength (Psalms 103:5).

The Eternal Power of Intentional Living

Ultimately, intentional living is the key to overcoming bad habits and walking out your New You identity.

It takes a commitment: Don't wait for the right day or the right feeling—tomorrow never comes. You must make a daily, intentional commitment to change and start today.
Intentionally Growing Stronger: Having a vision and a deep desire to be the best version of yourself, whether as a parent or in your health, provides the motivation to create lasting triggers.
Letting Go of Toiling: Toiling is the process of trying to move things from the outside in—struggling, worrying, and pouring your own effort into problems, only to get frustrated and more confused. The answer is to recognize when you are toiling, stop, surrender the problem to God, and step back into the light. When you do, the answers often come quickly, and you move from toiling over it to flowing through it.

Embrace the power of the new creation, set intentional triggers, and watch as your old habits effortlessly begin to fade away.

Overcoming Bad Habits: The Power of the New You in Christ