We are creatures of habit. Our bodies thrive on routine—we get hungry at roughly the same times, we generally like routines, and we naturally form habits. This is by God’s design. Neuroscience confirms that repetition ingrains behaviours, creating neural pathways that make actions automatic.
Forming habits
While we wait for our eternal home in the new creation, we want to harness our natural habit-forming tendency—for good. I don’t mean that we just want good, clean habits like always drinking eight glasses of water a day or always sending a thank you note after a party.
I’m talking mainly about habits of Bible reading, prayer and resting, because these are the habits that will help us to keep going!1
Who controls your habits?
The primary business of tech companies is to control your habits so they can advertise to you and make money off you and your habits.
So, if you don’t take charge of your habits, other things will. And because we so quickly forget, Deuteronomy 6 tells us that in the daily cycles of sitting, walking, sleeping, getting up, God’s word needs to be front and centre.
Taking charge of our habits
The good news is we can take control of our habits, by God’s grace.2 He does it through his Spirit enabling you to exercise self-control. That is, God works through our own conscious efforts to take control of our life and our habits.
That’s not to say it won’t take time. A study done at the University College London discovered that it takes people anywhere between 18 days and 254 days to form a new habit.3
I’ve just learned a tricky new way to cut out a busy intersection when driving home from the city—but I have to deliberately think about it, or my habit takes me the old way. I know it will take time to ingrain the new habit, but it’s worth it because the new way is better.
Acknowledge your weakness, and start small
So where do we begin? By asking for God’s help! If you’re anything like me, you’re going to have to keep asking for God’s help, and he is kind.
Beginning with just five minutes is a good way to start small. There’s a lot of wisdom in the ‘stop while you’re having fun’ rule. Don’t start with a two-hour, in-depth Bible study and long list of people to pray for, or you’ll only do it once.
Simple plans can be easily adapted; complex ones not as easily. When things don’t go to plan (as they tend to do) a simple Bible-reading and prayer habit can be changed to a more convenient time and then picked up again.
A key tool is to link a new habit with something you like—a place, time or activity. Piggyback it to another habit you already have. For a time, I piggybacked a brief time of Bible reading and prayer on to my nighttime habit of reading other books before I went to sleep.
Do you like sitting down with a cup of tea in the afternoon? Try five minutes of Bible reading and prayer then. Have two cups of tea!
Do you love the early mornings when no-one else is up? More power to you.
Do you like getting into your PJs at 4.30 in the afternoon? Try five minutes of Bible reading in your PJs.
Do you like going for a run? You can listen to an audio Bible for five minutes before your regular music.
Do you like sitting in the sun, or gardening? Those might be perfect times for praying through a list of people.
Currently, I find that first thing in the morning along with that first sip of coffee is when it feels luxurious to sit in bed and also drink in a few quiet minutes of what God is saying to me in the Bible, and to give my not-very-well-articulated anxieties and requests to him as my Father.
Some things to consider
What kind of person do you want to be, under God? What do you want to do in life?
Do you want to sit at the feet of Jesus, listening to him?
Do you really want to be a prayer warrior when you’re old and infirm? I really do. But I’m going to have to start now if I want to be one then.
I’d encourage you to write down your answers to these questions, as well as some ideas about what time you’re going to use to change your habits, knowing yourself and what’s realistic for you.
The struggle is real
Maybe you have objections like “I’m not a disciplined person!” or “I’ve tried and it doesn’t take!” I’m hearing you. I’m not a super disciplined type of person myself.
But this isn’t about our conscious decisions. It’s about consciously disciplining our unconscious decisions, our regular responses.
You’ve got to get to the point where you just do it—and you never know, you might just grow to love it. And it will be a struggle until Jesus returns. This is because there’s an extra element to developing these kinds of habits—it’s a spiritual battle. Satan doesn’t want you to be in the habit of turning to God’s word and to your heavenly Father in prayer.
Remember grace
We are motivated by grace. God won’t love you any more or less by your habits, because your place in his family was secured by Jesus’ death on the cross for you.
Titus 2:11-13 reminds us that it’s the grace of God that trains us to say no to ungodliness and to be self-controlled. We often think it’s the opposite—that we need rules, laws, punishments, strict regimes. But that’s not what the Bible says to us.
In Jesus’ death for us complete rebels, we’ve been brought into the very family of God; we are privileged beyond anything we could ever hope for. That’s our motivation for growing in the likeness of our loving heavenly Father.
A version of this article was published by the ACR in 2019.
- This article will focus mainly on Bible reading and prayer. Look out for a forthcoming article with some tricks and tips for cultivating habits of rest. ↩︎
- I need to say here that there is a difference between a habit and an addiction. An addiction is a behaviour that you can’t control; it’s a problem you need to get help for. A habit is something you can control, though it might take effort. If you are struggling with a habit that you can’t seem to break, or with an addiction, then do talk to your GP or someone else about it so you can get the help you need. ↩︎
- Phillipa Lally, ‘How habits are formed: Modelling habit formation in the real world’, Wiley Online Library, 16 June 2009 (viewed 15 January 2025). ↩︎