28 Aug Hopes & Habits (Because you can’t have uphill hopes and downhill habits) Part 3
Over the past few weeks we have begun sharing from this series.
You can have valid and wonderful uphill hopes, but if you have downhill habits you will always be going around the same mountain on a yearly basis!
Let’s review our first five “Eight Habit Helpers”:
- Hope is not a strategy (Heb. 6:19).
2. The things we do and the things we should do don’t always line up (Rom. 7:19).
3. The two greatest gaps in life are “wanting and having” and “knowing and doing”. If you’ll close the second gap, the first gap will automatically close.
4. We are what we repeatedly do.
5. We form our habits then our habits form us.
This week we continue with…
6. Always point your saying, sowing and serving in the same direction.
This culture is arrayed against us, therefore when you swim upstream it’s imperative to have as much working for you as possible. In my 34 years of ministry I have seen it over and over again, we say “I want to get out of debt!” yet we sow in a completely different direction and we waste money on $250 rims for every wheel on our car. Now your “saying” and “sowing” are pulling in different directions. Point your saying, sowing and serving in the same direction.
7. Always point your mouth, money and ministry in the same direction. Again, this is the same principle as #6 but said in a little different way.
8. Habit will take you further than desire.
Three or four Holy Spirit approved, Biblically-based habits lived out on a daily basis will always take you further than desire.
With the aforementioned as our foundation, let’s get started lining up our uphill hopes with uphill habits.
Three Different Dynamics:
#1. Renew your hope (Prov. 13:12).
Here the Bible tells us, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when the desire comes, it is a tree of life.” As I mentioned before, “hope” is not a strategy. However when you don’t have hope, you won’t ever look for a strategy.
I love the passage in John 4 when Jesus meets the Samaritan woman at the well. John 4:10 tells us, “Jesus answered, If you only knew what God gives and who it is that is asking you for a drink, you would ask him, and he would give you life-giving water” (GNT). Notice the phrase “If you only knew”. This woman had gone through such a difficult life. She had five husbands and the sixth man she was now with was not her husband. One can only imagine the abuse, the hurt, the betrayal this woman had experienced for years and years.
She had probably just about given up hope that her life could ever be better. Yet Jesus stood before her as her “Seventh Man”. The first one that wouldn’t abuse her, hurt or betray her, and uttered the phrase “If you only knew…”. In other words, He was trying to instill hope in her! If you only knew a year from now how things could be different in your life.
Join us next month as we continue this series…