What To Do With Bad Habits
You must destroy all the heathen altars wherever you find them -- high in the mountains, up in the hills, or under the trees. Break the altars, smash the obelisks, burn the shameful images, cut down the metal idols, and leave nothing to remind you of them! (Deuteronomy 12:2-3)
A habit is a pattern of behavior acquired by frequent repetition. It is a customary manner or practice. A habit can also be referred to as an addiction. It is something that you do routinely without much thought or effort. It takes about 7 days to acquire a habit and about 14 days to break a habit. Therefore, it is so important not to develop bad habits because it takes twice as long to rid yourself of them.
Breaking a bad habit is not easy. In the above scripture, Israel had picked up a bad habit of worshipping pagan gods. To rid them of the habit, God instructed them to DESTROY all the pagan altars whenever they found them. God was very specific. He told them to BREAK, SMASH, BURN, CUT DOWN, and do whatever else was necessary to rid themselves of the altars. Then God said, "Leave nothing to remind you of them!" In other words, God says, "Remove the temptation!"
That's our lesson for today. In order to acquire new pure habits, we certainly must make room for them. If anything is in our lives that might tempt us to hold on to a bad habit, let's destroy, break, smash, burn, cut it down and leave nothing to remind us of it. Bad habits deserve no mercy.
Rev. Margaret Minnicks
