A Stubborn Habit?

Erwin W. Lutzer has written a book called“How to Say No to a Stubborn Habit. In that book he says that some stubborn sins may be stubborn because they are tied to other sins that are buried deeper.

For example, a stubborn habit of overeating may be tied to an unconscious habit of being angry at someone for some dark reason. The Lord will not deal with the overeating problem until the anger problem is dealt with. The overeating problem then becomes the goad that sends you repeatedly to prayer to meet Christ at the back door of your mind, your heart, where He visits. He may be using the circumstance of the stubborn habit to get more “apple of the eye” time with you, while preparing you for the real answer to your prayers.

Don’t drive yourself crazy over it. And don’t let anyone else either.

There is one particular thing you need to be aware if you happen to have a stubborn habit that’s very visible. You need to watch out for other Christians, and even Christian assemblies, who keep a mental checklist of particular sins that they think need to be dealt with before any other sins are dealt with. Now it may happen that they are in agreement with the Lord that your particular stubborn habit is something you should deal with first. But sometimes Christians and Christian assemblies tend to major in the minors, and there are new Christians that can be hurt by this.

I know of one potential example of this that could have occurred. On an episode of Pacific Garden Mission’s fine radio show, Unshackeled!, I once heard the story of a drunk who started his own private Bible study in his home. That’s right. He was a private drunk, who had a habit of drinking to drunkeness in the privacy of his own home. It turned out that one day, while he was quietly drinking himself down, he happened to notice a Bible in his house, and conceived an impulse to start reading it while he was downing his drinks. He started at Genesis. And he then went on to make a habit of reading the Bible while he was drinking. Then came Exodus. Then Leviticus. And he was still drinking. But by the time he got to Revelation, he was not only sober, but a regenerated, church-going man. A powerful testimony to the Word of God itself.

But there are assemblies of Christians where even having de-alcoholized wine in one’s house is grounds for being publically excommunicated. Had this man showed up in one of these assemblies before the Lord had completed His work with him, the work might have been damaged or stopped altogether.

This is the kind of thing I’m thinking about when I talk about assemblies having checklists of what work they think the Lord should do first on a new Christian. Christ’s grace is sufficient for you, and it should be so for everyone else.