Breaking Up With Your Bad Habits

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Do you have a bad habit you want to get rid of? 

I smoked a pack a day: menthol. 

I loved the way they felt from the first drag to the last.

I did not care what people thought about it.

I was a smoker and “They” had an issue if they thought smoking meant I wasn’t a Christian.

Then God started nudging me. I wanted more of a relationship with Him and praying with a lit cigarette in your hand is harder than you think.

When Habits Become Idols 

It was an idol in my life. It needed to come down.

It was not easy. I had tried quitting before. After my brother-in-law died of large cell carcinoma of the lungs I was smoke free for a year, but I did not deal with any of the heart issues that lead me to smoke, I just treated the symptom. So when my stress level rose, my will power fell and I ran back to the comfort of my idol: the cigarette.

There were heart issues behind my bad habit, and if you have a habit you are struggling with, there may be some heart issues for you as well.

For me, I was not depending on God, or looking to Him as my source or my comfort. I was a Christian in name only because my relationship stopped at the church doors on Sunday.

I knew the Bible, I could rattle off scripture to anyone who needed to “be encouraged” or “corrected”. I knew how to smile and how to act while in church, but I could not even make it through a service without stepping out for a cigarette break.

I worshipped at the pack of Marlboro™ rather than at the house of God.

God had enough of my rebellion.

He wanted me to lay it down.

So I did.

Oh was it hard!

Physically it only takes three days to quit and your body flushes out the nicotine. The battle is in your mind and in your heart. That took much longer, and some days I still battle the urge to pick up a cigarette and light up.

I had some real battles to fight, and I was not alone. I had the comforter, The Holy Spirit, to help.

Here are my five best tips for breaking up with your bad habit:

1) Shut up.

Stop saying I can’t or I don’t want to. You can live without your bad habit and you will not die without it. So stop lying to yourself. Just be quiet!

2) Change (Renew) your mind. Romans 12:2
We have to have an immediate response to stressors and thoughts that lead to our bad habit. We have to capture those wrong thoughts and replace them with the word of God.

You can have a box of first aid in the house but until you use it on the wound, it will do you little good. The word of God is the same! It needs to be applied correctly to the wounds of life to receive any benefit!

 I wrote about this in Developing Your Automatic Truth Response
“When I was a smoker, quitting was not easy. Sometimes I still remember the temporary satisfaction I got from a cigarette. When I do I cast it down. I remind myself that God is my refuge, not a pack of Marlboros. I remind myself that I am the temple of the Holy Spirit, not a blackened lung from a health class poster circa 1990. I say that I am bigger and better than that cigarette because the God of the universe made me and that cigarettes were made by man. THIS WORKS!”

3) Remind yourself who you are!

You are a child of God; you are more than a conqueror. You are joint heirs with Jesus Christ and you can come boldly to the Father for any reason. He created you for a purpose and He can only get the glory when we give Him the rightful place in our lives.

4) Pray.

Prayer is talking to God: sharing with Him your struggles, your triumphs, and your pain. And prayer is more: prayer is getting still and quiet and listening to what God has to say too. It is a two way conversation.

James 5:16 (Amp) Confess to one another therefore your faults (your slips, your false steps, your offenses, your sins) and pray [also] for one another, that you may be healed and restored [to a spiritual tone of mind and heart]. The earnest (heartfelt, continued) prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power available [dynamic in its working].

5) Have someone to hold you accountable.

A friend, a mate, a pastor, a counselor: find someone to hold you accountable to your goal of breaking up with your bad habit. Make sure this is someone who does not struggle in the same area as you. Asking a smoker to help you quit smoking is probably not the best course of action.

These tips are sound. I have used them with great success. My fingers are no longer stained yellow, my breath and hair no longer smell like tobacco smoke and I am no longer a slave to a cigarette.

You have a purpose and a calling. God wants all of you, you heart, your will, your emotions, your body. You have to choose to surrender to Him more and to your habits less. Then you will begin to grow in your relationship with God like never before.



Discussion Question: Have you ever overcome a bad habit before? Do you have tips to share?