Bad Habits

Q: I am tired of being susceptible to the things of this world I just wish to connect spiritually with God. I'm a sinner (a Christian with bad habits) and wish to just live peacefully even with the struggles I am facing as a student.

A: Thank you for your question. I appreciate your honesty about being tired of your susceptibility to fall victim to the things of this world. To be honest with you, you are no different than me or any other person. Christians have "bad habits" and struggle with sins just like everybody else. Sometimes we are taught that since we have put faith in Jesus Christ that our lives will automatically get better. That is a myth that deceives many people. That is not to say that we cannot experience victory over our bad habits and sins, but we will never completely escape them while we are in these fallen bodies. However, be encouraged by the fact that you can still "connect" with God in the midst of your struggles. It is not the absence of our struggles that leads to our connection with God, but we connect with Him in the midst of our struggles. The apostle Paul struggled with something he called a "thorn in his flesh." He prayed for the Lord to take it away from him. The response that the Lord gave to Paul was quite interesting. "But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me (2 Corinthians 12:9)." Would you agree that as Christians our purpose here in this world is to glorify God? One of the major ways that this is accomplished is by how we deal with our struggles.

Often times when we are suffering our entire focus is on God because we realize just how incapable we are of overcoming our struggles. "But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble (James 4:6).” Your acknowledgment that you are tired of being susceptible to the things of this world is a sign of your humility. It shows that you realize that you cannot overcome the things of this world in your own strength. Therefore, you are turning to the Lord for help and guidance. That is where the grace of God is made most apparent to you. It drives you to the Lord to find out why you are struggling like you are and how His grace can guide you. The danger of believing that we have found a way to overcome sin is that we can become proud. The focus is on ourselves and what we believe we are doing for God or what we believe we have done without Him. That is what the verse from James is referring to. Pride is the opposite of unconditional love. Pride says things like "Look how I overcame the sin in my life." However, humility says, "Look how Jesus Christ died for my sins." The fact that you are seeking an answer for your question is a sign of your humility and focus on the Lord and not yourself. Furthermore, you are actually validating your faith in Christ and the truth of the the Bible in your actions.

"You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God (James 4:4)." Your hatred of the things of this world proves you are not a friend of the world nor are you an enemy of God. Rejoice in that. The key to beginning to see victory over the sins or bad habits you struggle with is actually contained in your question. You referred to yourself as a "Christian with bad habits." You must begin to see yourself the way God sees you. Because of your faith in Jesus Christ, God sees Him when He looks at you. Therefore, you should get to know exactly who you are in Christ. You are a brand new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). You are totally forgiven of all your sins; past, present and future (Colossians 1:13-14). You are totally righteous (Romans 3:21-22). You are reconciled (Romans 5:10-11). You are redeemed (Galatians 4:4-5). You are sanctified (holy) (Colossians 1:22). You are justified (Romans 5:18). You are a part of the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:27). You are a citizen of Heaven (Philippians 3:20). You have eternal life (1 John 5:11-13). You are totally loved (Ephesians 3:17-19). How does knowing all that make you feel? God sees you like this regardless of your behavior. That is not to justify falling into sin or to encourage you to sin, but to remind you that you are not separated from God because of it. You are a Christian whether or not you have bad habits or good habits.

Many Christians have been taught that the goal of the Christian life is to stop sinning. However, that is dedicating yourself to an impossible life because you will never stop sinning. Besides, the only way to begin to live in such a way is to put yourself under some sort of law; God's law or man's law. That will only lead you to stirring up more sin in your life. "The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law (1 Corinthians 15:56)." The only result from this lifestyle is that you will feel that God is disgusted with you or, as you mentioned, you will feel disconnected from Him. What you should realize is that the goal of the Christian life is to start trusting God. Remember your identity. Remember who you are in Christ. Your sins are not separating you from God. And because our sins are not separating us from Him, we are able to "approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need (Hebrews 4:16)."You are connected to God because He indwells you and the one thing that could prevent Him from leaving you, your sin, has been taken away for eternity because of the death of Jesus Christ. Being free to approach God allows you to discover why you were not trusting Him when you sinned. As you begin to realize how much He loves you, you will begin to trust Him more. And when you are trusting Him you will begin to see a diminishing of the sin in your life. Why? Because you will begin to love others with the love He has for you . When you are loving others, you are not looking for opportunities to sin because you realize that what you have from God cannot be matched by what the world offers. Grace and Peace to you.