I love the story of David and Goliath! In fact, who doesn't? A massive warrior spewing out blasphemies and smack talk taken down by a little shepherd boy with a sling who happened to be in the area. I think we all love to hear stories about the underdog winning despite all the odds stacked against him.
I believe that every person has a giant of some sort in their lives. Each of us struggle with some kind of unhealthy habit or sin that continually beats us up and leaves us for dead. How is it that in relation to the 'giants' in our lives, we can experience defeat after depressing defeat?
I believe that we struggle with these things because they get rooted into our hearts and minds so deeply that it's not just that it's hard to remove but it's hard to even identify sometimes. Have you ever done something stupid more than once and you knew it was stupid before you did it but you did it anyway? Some things are rooted in us as thought processes, patterns, or coping mechanisms and we do them without understanding why.
I'd like to share with you how to break free from these things. After applying some of these things in my life. I've seen some chains that bound me for years break away.
1. Calculate the cost of your habit
I think the first step in defeating the giants in our lives is realizing what keeping your habit is actually costing you in terms of time, happiness, money, intimacy and companionship, good health, or a host of other things.
2. Get angry enough at your habit to meet it in battle one more time.
Sometimes the problem we run into with habits is they have been a part of our lives for so long. We may have waged war against it many times in the past already and lost. Because of this we might even downplay the cost the giant has had on us. We might just toss it up as a weakness we have and accept it's existence in our lives as part of who we are. But if we are going to get rid of it, we have to make it our enemy all over again. We have to recognize it for the life-stealing, joy-sucking, leech that it is. When we get angry enough at the giant and tired enough of how it makes us feel and what it has stolen from us-this is the beginning.
3. Plan your attack
How do you eat an entire elephant? One bite at a time. Big giants and big controlling habits intimidate us. We look at their size and run away like a dog with his tail tucked between his legs. But you can defeat anything given enough time if you can break it down into steps.
Many times we fail because the thought of fighting the giant seems like such an insurmountable task. "Give up tobacco?" One might say, "Impossible, I can't go one day without it much less a lifetime". This is why you must ignore what you will do in the future and focus only on right now. You have to set a goal for today and only worry about today. Thoughts of long term resistance will most likely lead to failure but today, I can kick that habits tail today!
Set your goal for a short term victory. For instance, "I WILL NOT drink today". Anyone can defeat anything if they only have to do it for a short time. Determine what your reasonable threshold is and dont be afraid to challenge yourself! Big giants are taken down by breaking them down into small steps and hacking away at them bit by bit.
4. The pledge
The truth is, all of us have the ability to resist anything and everything we want to if we know the Lord. We simply need a motive to activate that resistance. For instance, if I put a gun to your head and said "Stop eating doughnuts or I'm gonna blow your brains out!", most would suddenly find the power within to not take another bite. It's because a motive to stop was supplied. Now setting goals to quit is not enough. In my experience accountability groups are not enough. What you need is divine help that only comes from God.
In my car salesman days I once sold a car to an addiction specialist. We began discussing his career and he told me the overwhelming majority of his patients that find success in overcoming addictions and habits believe and rely upon the help of a higher power. He said it is the one branch of western science that actually acknowledges the influence of Divine help.
If you want to see that giant fall this year you're gonna have to ask for help from above. The truth is God requests of us over and over again to purify our lives. He is more than eager to help. He's very likely been waiting on you to ask for a long time.
Making a pledge to God is serious business. You don't break a pledge to God. This is why we have to make sure we are up to the task when we make our pledge. We have to make sure we are biting off a bite we think we can handle. A pledge to God would sound something like this,
"God I am sick and tired of....... God I don't want to ........ anymore. I believe you dont want me to..... anymore. Lord I pledge to you that for the next ....... I will not do this. I am asking for your power to help me. I am asking that you steer me away from temptation. I am asking that as a result of me ridding my life of this sin or habit that you would bless me beyond measure. Amen!
After you complete your first pledge successfully you will find a sense of confidence over your giant and this is the beginning of you controlling your habit. But it doesn't end there. You have to create another pledge slightly more ambitious than the first.
I wish I could tell you that it ends there-that you will never be tempted in that manner again but I can't. What I can promise you is that you will learn how to control your habit more easily. It will no longer hold power over you as before. I believe we all are hard wired to be prone to certain sins but this does not mean we have to obey them. To the contrary, we can learn to use them to our advantage.
Are you ready to declare victory? Sharpen your swords for 2015. You have some giants to obliterate! Do it for God and do it for YOU!
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