One of my favorite sayings is “the secret of your success lies in your daily routine; you’ll never change your life until you change something you do daily.” The idea that the success of the whole lies in its smaller foundational parts, is an absolute truth. Albeit one that is hard to grasp, rather elusive and at times seemingly impossible. There are also numerous other great adages that colorfully reinforce this ideal. “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” Or “how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.” All great quotes that point us to a fact of life where our success do indeed lie hidden in our daily routine, patterns, and habits.
This idea of daily habit has always fascinated me and when I find a truth that strikes me, I immediately go to God’s Word and see if it indeed held true with God’s men and women. We see over 29 verses of Jesus in prayer. He would pray all throughout the day and many times, He would sneak away in the quiet of the morning to be still with the Father. Jesus had a daily habit of spending quality time with the Father. In the gospel of Matthew Jesus tells us that our daily bread comes from God. (Matt 6:11) In the book of Acts we’re introduced to a body of believers that had a daily habit of “eagerly receiving the message and studying the scriptures each day to see if it were so.” (Acts 17:11) Paul in 1 Corinthians ties the idea together that a lack of daily time with the Lord can result in a “daily danger of death.” (1 Cor 15:31) David calls us to shed our stubbornness and instead live in daily obedience to God. (Psalm 95:7-9) And in Hebrews chapter 3 we see a plethora of daily commands. That we should listen to the Holy Spirit daily, encourage each other daily, and as a result, not harden our hearts against God every day. Folks, blink and you miss it. It’s right there woven into the very fabric of God’s Word. His personal message to you…the secret of becoming close to Me lies in the simple process of you spending time with Me each day.
Try this exercise. Think about three friends in your life. One is your bestie, one is close and one not so close. As you think about those three relationships, think about why some are closer than the others. Why are some of those people more intimate to you? Why do some knock on the door of your soul when others seem distant? Now I would challenge you to think about this one simple ingredient in each one of those friendships…time. I would bet you some oceanfront property in Arizona that you spend much more time with your bestie than you do the other two. A truth that it takes time to build strong relationships. It takes hours upon hours together to truly bond. It takes years of face time to create, love, trust, and companionship. So why would a relationship with Jesus be any different?
As we peek into 1 Samuel chapter 5 today, we see that none other than King David had developed a very good habit. A daily habit of looking to, talking to, listening to, worshiping, and loving God. Our chapter gives us this verse about David’s walk with the Lord:
“David's power grew steadily, for the Lord God who commands armies was with him.” 2 Sam 5:10
David grew in the Lord steadily…daily…habitually. David did not become strong in the Lord overnight. It was not a sudden arrival. It was a slow and steady process that took time, effort, will power and great tenacity. And God rewarded that daily, steady process by drawing near to David. Did you know that the same promise is extended to you today?
“Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.” James 4:8
If you are looking to change your daily routine today to make God the center, there are a few points that will help you build this new habit. A habit that is guaranteed to change the way you live in, view, and react to the dark world that surrounds you.
1) You must go to Him. Folks, the choice is yours. You can pray or not pray. You can pick up your Bible or leave it on the shelf. You can choose to be quiet and listen for His voice or turn on the news. The first step of your thousand mile journey begins with a decision. You must decide to make Him a daily priority in your life. Notice James 4:8 above has a very clear reactionary order. You go to God first. You are the catalyst. You must go to Him. You must put forth the effort. It's your decision. Yet, in a sad fact of life, for whatever reason, most people never make the decision. They never make it past this first step.
2) You must go to Him with the right heart. If you bring a busy, sin-filled, unrepentant heart to God, your time with Him will be dull and unfulfilling. Have you ever sat down with a good friend that you have lied to and not apologized to? You look at them and it feels different. You know that you have a wrong to admit. And it affects the way you look at, talk to, and hear them. But what happens if you admit your wrong to them, ask their forgiveness and they accept your apology? The wrong is righted and things becomes ‘normal.’ A breath of fresh air enters the conversation. Folks, God is no different. You must not only come to Him, but you must admit the wrongs you have committed against Him before the conversation can be real. The great thing about God? He is guaranteed to forgive you. As you go to God, go to Him with the right heart…a clean heart.
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9
3) You must go to Him daily. The idea that you can load up on enough Jesus to last you a while I call "the Jesus pill." I see people that read 14 chapters of the Bible in one sitting and then don’t read for two weeks. I see people that go to church on Sunday and then never even think about God for the next few weeks. It’s like they have taken a Jesus pill that had a dosage requirement of only once every few weeks. Like Jesus is a pill and on the bottle it says, “take one every few weeks to just get by.” But folks the real bottle would read, “take several pills daily at all costs.” In John 6:35 Jesus says:
“I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” John 6:35
Friends, how often do you eat? I would assume you feed yourself several times per day. If Jesus is the spiritual bread of life, then how often do you think you should feed yourself on His Word? Eating the spiritual bread of Jesus each day seems to make great sense if we feed ourselves physically each day. And what happens if you don’t eat food for a day or two. You become weak, frail, grumpy and coarse. We were made to eat physical food daily and we were also made to eat spiritual food daily in the form of the Word of God.
Folks, today you hold a monumental possibility in the palm of your hand. You hold the ability to change your life, change the way you live, and become a force that can make great changes in the world around you. You hold the ability to become a soldier of Christ....and He will do all the work. He will change you. He will strengthen you. He will give you wisdom. He will encourage you. He will lift you up to soar on wings like eagles. He will release you from your bondage to sin. He will set you free. And it all lies within you drawing near to Him each and every day.
Make Jesus the top priority in your day and therefore in your life. Then and only then, will your journey of a thousand miles begin.
God bless you in your daily walk with Jesus Christ.
Thanks Dan. Life is a challenge. With God’s help we can change our habits for the better.